A Russian woman who pleaded guilty to lying about her contacts with Russia’s main intelligence agency -- and was later accused of sending drunken harassing messages to the FBI -- was set to be sentenced in a Manhattan federal court.
US prosecutors have asked that Nomma Zarubina be sentenced to at least 18 months in prison when US Judge Laura Swain issues her final decision on June 11. Zarubina’s defense lawyers have requested that she receive no more additional time in custody.
Zarubina’s case had drawn attention as the latest example of what US authorities have asserted is a deliberate campaign -- usually overseen by Russia's Federal Security Service, known as the FSB -- to encourage Russians, often women, to befriend people in Western professional and social networks, with the aim of either influencing public opinion or otherwise.
A native of the Siberian city of Tomsk, Zarubina began traveling to the United States in the early 2010s, building a profile as an expert or activist on Russian regional politics and other subjects. She worked closely for a Russian-American woman named Elena Branson, who oversaw an organization called the Russian Center New York.
The FBI began questioning Zarubina in October 2020, not long after raiding Branson’s Manhattan apartment and seizing dozens of computers, phones, and other electronic devices. Branson, who fled to Russia, was charged 18 months later with being an unregistered foreign agent.
After several meetings with the FBI over the following years, Zarubina was arrested in November 2024 charged with lying about her communications with the FSB officer who had allegedly provided guidance and suggestions about people to befriend in the United States and elsewhere.
Released on bail, Zarubina then allegedly sent dozens of threatening or rambling text messages and photographs to the FBI investigators, often while intoxicated.
Prosecutors later added more charges: transporting women around the New York region for prostitution and lying on her US immigration application.
In December, Judge Swain revoked Zarubina’s bail. Two months later, she pleaded guilty to two charges: lying to the FBI and lying in her application for US citizenship.
Zarubina’s court-appointed defense lawyer, Kristoff Williams, said that she was likely to be deported at the end of any sentence, and therefore, she should be sentenced to only “time-served” -- the time she’s spent in custody to date.
In a letter to the judge submitted prior to the June 11 hearing, Zarubina was apologetic, and asked that she be allowed to stay in the United States.
“I strongly believe that I can be valuable to the American intelligence community as an analyst,” she wrote. However, “if I am deported, I will never give up my love for this Country and the memories I made during my 11 years of living here.”
