Havana/The Cubans Oemis Romagoza Durruthy and Yaidel Delgado Suárez, both 35 years old, were part of a network linked to the Russian intelligence services that planned to assassinate the chess player and opposition leader Garry Kasparov in the United States. A reportage published this Wednesday by The World points out that this summer the US authorities informed the founder of Free Russia Forum that he was a “target” of a Russian Government plan to eliminate him and he was given special protection for the first time since he went into exile and settled in New York in 2013.
The text published by the Spanish media expands the information about the group, which was put in the public eye on September 16, after the Prosecutor’s Office of the Southern District of New York will accuse five of its members – among them the two Cubans, as well as Yuri Khramev, a former colonel of the Russian intelligence services who worked with President Vladimir Putin in his youth, and his son Kirill, an officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), as well as the Venezuelan Ángel Eduardo Castro, 22 years old –, of conspiring to finance acts of terrorism (the latter three with an accusation of conspiracy to commit a murder for hire).
According to the report, Kasparov, who was included by Russian authorities in official records as a “foreign agent” and later on a list of people considered “terrorists and extremists,” was not the only target on American soil. There were more advanced plans to eliminate Ilyá Ponomarev, the only Russian Duma deputy who voted against the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and who from exile has supported the armed defense of Ukraine.
Expressions such as “measure land and give measurements” supposedly referred to surveillance work, while “construction” was used to talk about the final attack.
Ponomarev, who lives between kyiv and Washington, would have been monitored by a person recruited by the network. According to court documents, the person took photographs and videos of locations related to the victim in exchange for money, but ultimately refused to participate in the murder. For the death of the politician, who was identified as “Victim Number 1”, $40,000 was paid.
The researchers described that network members used code terms for their activities. Expressions such as “measure land and give measurements” supposedly referred to surveillance work, while “construction” was used to talk about the final attack.
According to US authorities, the role of Cubans in the network is central to recruitment. Romagoza Durruthya dance teacher originally from Camagüey who works for Russian espionage, was already known by Lithuanian authorities for recruiting people to carry out arson attacks and acts of sabotage in at least four countries of the European Union.
His role had already been documented by different European media in recent days. “God” was the name used by the Cuban on social networks, where he offered work through different messages on Telegram, one of them in a group of Cubans in Russia: “To those interested in applying, send your resume, phone number and passport,” it said. In another, specifically for Latinos, it promised about 1,300 euros per operation carried out: “Looking for people with military experience in monitoring, intelligence, logistics and tactical maneuvers.” Although Romagoza is not accused of the specific charge of murder for hire, the file indicates that he stored photographs and videos of one of the addresses of the so-called ‘Victim 1’.
The final objective was “to liquidate one or two dissidents and in the process send a harsh message to the rest”
Meanwhile, Delgado Suárez, 35, acted as a recruiter for the planned attacks in the United States along with Venezuelan Ángel Eduardo Castro. According to the story, Castro contacted a compatriot in Brooklyn this summer with a direct question: “Do you have anyone you trust in Washington?”
The instructions they followed were detailed: delete the conversation, go to the victim’s neighborhood with the phone in airplane mode, record from afar with your left hand and make a finger sign to ensure that the video was recent. The final objective was “to liquidate one or two dissidents and in the process send a harsh message to the rest.”
Other possible targets were also the opposition Vladimir Kara-Murza, poisoned twice by Russia and released in 2024 in a prisoner exchange, while in Lithuania, the network was targeting Ivan Tyutrin, co-founder of the Free Russia Forum with Kasparov, for whose death they paid $25,000.
Also on the list of possible targets is Ruslan Gabbasov, a Bashkir activist exiled in the capital of Lithuania who demands the independence of Bashkortostan, a republic that is part of the Russian Federation. In 2025 he discovered a tracking device in his car and the Lithuanian Prosecutor’s Office later identified a plan to murder him.
According to US authorities, Russia has been using Spanish speakers for sabotage in Europe for some time, “among other things because many have Spanish residence and can move without a visa both in Russia and in the EU.” The US criminal accusation does not attribute a role to the Cuban state, and Havana has denied any link with both.
