Nomma Zarubina, convicted of lying to the FBI, is the latest Russian woman accused of using her sexual wiles for spying
Nomma Zarubina, 35, now sits in a New York jail awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty last week to charges that she lied to the FBI about her contacts with the FSB, Russia’s biggest domestic intelligence service.
But, in a playbook that comes straight from the cold war, the striking-looking Zarubina – known as “Alyssa” to her Russian handlers – was tasked with meeting prominent Americans in order to lure them into the orbit of Moscow intelligence.
According to US prosecutors, Zarubina attended “seminars, forums and conventions also attended by prominent members of academia, foreign policy, the US government and the media”. Her job was to “identify potentially helpful contacts” in the US and pass them on to the FSB so the agency could invite them to Russia to “convert” them to the “Russian way of thinking”.
Maria Butina! Oh yeah. Good times, good times. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Butina
Butina worked as an assistant for Aleksandr Torshin, a former member of the Federation Council, member of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, and deputy governor of the Central Bank of Russia.[4] In this role, she tried to infiltrate conservative groups in the US, including the National Rifle Association, as part of an effort to promote Russian interests in the 2016 United States presidential election.[4][5][6] The Senate Intelligence Committee later concluded that she attempted to persuade the Trump campaign to establish a secret communications back channel with Russia.[7]
Fun fact - she did act as a backchannel and money source for both the NRA and the trump campaign. Didn’t just “attempt” to.
