From Russia With Impunity

A federal indictment alleging an assassination plot in Washington unveils Russian efforts to punish dissidents and defy the U.S. Illustration by Noah Hickey/The Dispatch (Photos via Getty Images). Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. The Department of Justice unsealed explosive conspiracy charges last week against five men accused of working for Russian intelligence services to plot the surveillance and assassination of a prominent Russian dissident they believed to be living in the Washington, D.C area. The audacious plot to hire a hit man and assassinate a dissident in the United States is highly unusual and could be a sign that Russia is bringing to the United States the same destabilizing tactics it has used in Europe. Mark Sawyer is a reporter for The Dispatch based in Washington, D.C., and the inaugural Journalism Excellence Fellow through The Fund for American Studies. He previously worked as an investigator and open-source intelligence analyst focused on a range of issues including election integrity, national security, and Russia's use of disinformation and the internet to pursue its foreign policy goals. His favorite professional experiences have been serving as an election observer in Ukraine and Moldova. When Mark is not going down rabbit holes for his latest article, you can probably find him experimenting in the kitchen, birdwatching in the city, or convincing his unsuspecting friends to play a complicated board game. More We Think You’d Like