Kristina Puzyreva, 32 years old, A Canadian of Russian origin has just pleaded guilty in federal court in Brooklyn on charges of conspiring with her husband to illegally export electronic components from Montreal destined for the Russian armed forces in violation of American sanctions against Moscow.
Evidence presented in court shows that some of these parts were found in Russian drones, missiles and helicopters captured or shot down in Ukraine. Puzyreva faces 20 years in prison. Her husband, Nikolay Goltsev, and an accomplice, Salimdzhon Nasriddinov, have not yet been brought to justice.
According to prosecutors, she received more than 150 packages from American companies at her Montreal address over a period of about five years. According to the US Department of Homeland Security, the three accomplices carried out more than 300 illegal shipments worth approximately 10 million Canadian dollars. American agents seized about $1.68 million from bank accounts linked to the trio.
- Listen to the Lester Durocher meeting with blogger Normand Lester from the Journal de Montréal QUB :
Another unsolved “Russian” mystery
This is reminiscent of another mysterious case, this time involving a 33-year-old Russian-speaking Ukrainian from Montreal, Inna Yaschyshyn. She posed as Anna de Rothschild, a member of the famous family, to gain access to Trump at Mar-a-Lago and was photographed with him at his golf course in May 2021. She lived in Montreal, where she ran a charity, Les Cœurs unis de la merci, suspected of running a front to conceal illegal activities.
In an affidavit to the Montreal court, Inna Yaschyshyn claimed to have been under the influence of a Russian resident of Quebec and Florida, Valeriy Tarasenko. In October 2022, the man was the victim of an attack with firearms in front of the Estérel hotel complex in the Laurentians. To date, the SQ has refused to comment on the matter. Nothing is known about the FBI investigation either. Secret and gummy bears!
- Listen to the Lester Durocher meeting with blogger Normand Lester from the Journal de Montréal QUB :
Montreal and Canada: Russian “spy nests”
On several occasions, Russian spies have operated in Canada without diplomatic cover – illegals, in technical parlance. I dedicate a series of podcasts to him on QUB Radio.
• The KGB brought two spies to Canada in the 1980s under the names Tracey Foley and Donald Heathfield, identities stolen from Canadian children who died as infants.
• In 1996, the RCMP and CSIS accused another couple, Ian Mackenzie Lambert and Laurie Brodie, of being Russian spies who had also usurped the identities of children buried in cemeteries in Montreal and Toronto.
• In November 2006, an illegal Russian spy was arrested at Dorval Airport while en route to the Balkans. He lived in Montreal for more than ten years under his false Canadian identity, Paul William Hampel.
• A Russian spy currently imprisoned in Norway spent years in Canada after discovering his false identity in Brazil – José Assis Giammaria – Mikhail Mikouchine moved to Canada, where Carleton University in Ottawa awarded him a bachelor's degree in political science in 2015. He then earned a master's degree from the University of Calgary.