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Nomma Zarubina

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) charged Russian citizen Nomma Zarubina, who lives in New York, with two counts of making false statements regarding her ties to Russian intelligence services. According to the FBI, Russian Nomma Zarubina established connections with journalists, military personnel and experts on behalf of Russian intelligence services. According to the agency's documents, she lied to American authorities about her ties to Russia, but later admitted that she cooperated with the FSB. She may have been recruited by Russian intelligence services in 2020 under the code name "Alisa".

According to the first count of the indictment (the indictment is in the possession of the Voice of America Russian Service), 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 her about her activities in the United States. At the same time, according to the FBI, Zarubina was in contact with the Russian FSB (Federal Security Service) during this time and carried out tasks in the United States on its behalf.

The FBI first questioned Zarubina in October 2020 in connection with a criminal case against the head of the Coordinating Council of Organizations of Russian Compatriots (CCORS) Elena Branson, whom the FBI accused of illegally working as a Russian agent in 2022. After a search of her office, Branson left New York for Russia in October 2020. According to information on Zarubina's social networks, she worked at KSORS from 2016 to February 2022. During an FBI interrogation, the Russian woman said that she developed the council's website and published links and materials there, including her own. Branson, whom she calls her mentor, connected her with important people.

Zarubina told the FBI that during her trips to Russia, she met with Branson, who in turn asked her about the details of the case against her and whether she could travel. As noted in the case materials, in addition to professional ties, Branson is the godmother of Zarubina's daughter. According to Zarubina’s Facebook profile, she studied at St. Petersburg State University (SPbSU) and the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) in Russia. She moved to the United States around 2016, the indictment says.

One of the latest events that Zarubina wrote about on social media was the conference of the “Forum of Free Peoples of Post-Russia” in Canada in mid-November, in which she participated as “an independent researcher, a graduate of the Marx School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College in New York and a former representative of a non-governmental organization to the UN (from Tomsk).”

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, adding that “it is much more pleasant to have any dealings with US law enforcement officers than with people spreading rumors/opinions/blackmail.” Zarubina said that she was against Russian aggression against Ukraine. She participated in events dedicated to the decolonization of Russia. Previously, she actively collaborated with a Russian cultural organization and was photographed with Russian diplomats.

According to the 2024 indictment, in December 2020, Zarubina, a native of Tomsk, met with an FSB officer in her hometown and signed a contract with the Russian intelligence agency. According to the contract, she was to help the Russian agency with “network marketing.” Zarubina, who was given the code name “Alisa,” cooperated with the Russian intelligence agency until approximately 2022, according to the FBI. According to the indictment, the Russian helped the FSB find and establish contacts among journalists and experts from think tanks in the United States. To do this, she attended seminars and forums attended by representatives of the media, science, international relations, and the diplomatic sector.

In June 2024, during another interview, Zarubina admitted to the FBI that she had lied about her ties to Russian intelligence during previous interrogations. According to the indictment, the Russian confirmed that she had met with the FSB agent from Tomsk several times and corresponded with him frequently. He instructed her to participate in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in 2021 and asked her to find journalists who would cover the event positively.

Later, an FSB agent gave her a list of people in American think tanks about whom she was to gather information or with whom she needed to establish contacts. 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.” As the Russian woman noted during the FBI interrogation, she no longer communicated with this FSB agent, since their relationship was complicated both personally and professionally, and she began to feel that he was manipulating her.

In addition, Zarubina admitted to FBI agents that as of 2023, she was in contact with an FSB officer from Moscow with whom she "had previously attended university and with whom she had developed a personal relationship." He told her that his job was to interrogate compatriots visiting Russia who lived and worked in the United States. He also told her that the FSB database noted that "she had strong interpersonal skills, and that these skills were rare for people who work with the FSB."

During FBI interrogations, Zarubina also admitted that she had a close personal relationship with the then Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN and that she was in contact with representatives of Rossotrudnichestvo. On November 21, 2024, Zarubina was released on $25,000 bail by a court decision. Her passport was confiscated, she was prohibited from leaving New York and communicating with foreign officials, except for representatives of the Russian consulate. A preliminary hearing in Zarubina's case was scheduled for late December 2024.

Two days after the court decided to release her on bail, Zarubina posted on Facebook, in which she wrote that she “feels like an American in accepting values such as freedom, privacy, positive thinking, community, national security. ” She wrote that she “has been against the aggressive war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine from the very beginning and up to now,” and also asked for help with work in New York. Zarubina's Instagram page contains many photos with famous people. Until 2022, the accused was photographed with Russian diplomats and officials, including the Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzeya, his deputy Dmitry Polyansky, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov, and the head of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov. She posted photos from events related to diplomacy, the UN or other international organizations.

After 2022, her preferences in choosing people for joint photos changed a lot. Zarubina posted photos with oppositionists Leonid Volkov and Lyubov Sobol, writer Viktor Shenderovich, poet Dmitry Bykov, former Special Assistant to the US President for European and Russian Affairs Fiona Hill and experts from Washington think tanks, among whom were many former military personnel.