USA: 3 Russians arrested in New York for shipping weapons components
Three people were arrested in New York for evading U.S. sanctions and shipping electronic components for weapons Moscow used in the war in Ukraine. Nikolay Golstev, 37, and his wife Kristina Puzyreva, 32, both Russian-Canadian citizens, were arrested along with their alleged partner Salimdzhon Nariddinov, 52, a Russian-Tajik citizen. The trio is accused of evading sanctions to send “over 300 shipments of restricted goods worth approximately $10 million to the Russian battlefield” over the course of a year, he said in a statement. Press release Ivan Arvelo, Special Agent in Charge of the US Department of Homeland Security. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York said “more than $1.1 million in proceeds” were also seized from domestic bank accounts. Components linked to the Brooklyn-based group’s two companies “were found in seized Russian weapons platforms and signals intelligence equipment in Ukraine,” including guided missile systems, drones, tanks and helicopters, the Justice Department said in a statement announcing the charges. “The defendants were aware that the exported electronics had potential military applications,” the statement continued, describing the alleged conspiracy as “a global procurement scheme on behalf of sanctioned Russian companies, including companies affiliated with the Russian military.”