Russian woman from New York accused of working for FSB

In the US, a Russian woman was accused of working for the FSB: on behalf of the Russian special services, she allegedly established connections with journalists, military personnel and experts. This was reported by Voice of America.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has charged Russian citizen Nomma Zarubina with working for Russian special services.

According to the FBI, Zarubina collaborated with Russian intelligence services. In 2020, she was allegedly recruited by the FSB (Federal Security Service of Russia). The agent received the code name "Alice".

On assignment from the intelligence service, she established contacts in the United States among journalists, military personnel, employees of analytical centers, and university professors who studied Russia. She had to convince them of the “Russian vision of the situation.” To do this, Zarubina attended discussion meetings and seminars for activists in Europe and the United States.

On the subject: Hochul's former assistant and her husband were arrested for working for the Chinese government

Recently, Zarubina wrote on her Facebook page about her participation as an expert in the decolonial conferences of the “Forum of Free States of Post-Russia”.

What is the Russian woman accused of?

According to the first count, in April 2021, during an FBI interrogation, Zarubina falsely stated that she had no contacts with representatives of the Russian government or intelligence services.

According to the second count, Zarubina again gave false testimony in September 2023. She said that an FSB representative contacted her only once to ask about her activities in the United States. At the same time, according to the FBI, Zarubina was in contact with the Russian FSB during this time and carried out tasks in the United States on its behalf.

Later, an FSB agent gave her a list of people in American think tanks. Zarubina was supposed to gather information about them or establish contacts with them. The agent told Zarubina that he wanted to come up with a pretext to invite American journalists and military personnel from her contact databases to Russia in order to introduce them to the “Russian way of thinking.”

Personal connections with agents in Russia

As the Russian woman noted during the FBI interrogation, she no longer communicates with this FSB agent. Their relationship was complicated both personally and professionally. She noticed that he began to manipulate her.

Zarubina confessed to agents FBI, that as of 2023, she was in contact with an FSB officer in Moscow. She had “previously studied with him at university, and she had developed a personal relationship with the agent.” He told her that his job was to interrogate compatriots visiting Russia who lived and worked in the United States. He told her that the FSB database noted that “she had strong interpersonal skills, and that these skills are rare in people working with the FSB.”

During FBI interrogations, Zarubina admitted that she had a close personal relationship with the then Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN. She was in contact with representatives of Rossotrudnichestvo.

Zarubina's case mentions that since 2016, her mentor was the head of the Coordinating Council of Organizations of Russian Compatriots (CCORS) in the United States, Elena Branson, whom the FBI accused in 2022 of illegally working as an agent of the Russian authorities.

Zarubina was released on $25 bail pending trial, with a ban on leaving New York. Her passport was taken away and she was restricted from contacting Russian officials.

A preliminary hearing in Zarubina's case is scheduled for late December.

On her Facebook page, Zarubina wrote that she “is not hiding or running away” and would be happy to talk to the media.

"Please do not rely on the Pravda post - articles by people who do not work and have never officially worked in US law enforcement. They do not have details of the story, but they have a lot of personal ambitions, so it turns out to be word of mouth," she noted. "It is much more pleasant to do any business with US law enforcement officers than with people spreading rumors/opinions/blackmail."