Russian national Nomma Zarubina admits to making false statements regarding links to intelligence

Nomma Zarubina heading U.S. prison for spying for Russian intelligence after a few tumultuous months in which her bail was revoked for harassing an investigator on her case.

A Russian woman charged with lying about her intelligence ties agreed to a plea deal in a New York federal courtroom Thursday, capping a tumultuous few months that saw her jailed for drunk texting an FBI agent.

Nomma Zarubina, 35, was arrested in November 2024 on charges that she lied to the FBI about her meeting with agents of the FSB, Russia’s principal intelligence agency. Prosecutors in April 2025 added charges alleging she engaged in interstate transport of women for prostitution.

She pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements to the FBI and to one count of naturalization fraud for lying on her naturalization application about involvement in prostitution.

“Zarubina’s intentional concealment of her misconduct and her lies about her affiliation with Russian intelligence were an affront to law enforcement’s national security efforts,” James Barnacle Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office, said in a statement. 

Denied bail, she faces up to five years in prison on each count, and is scheduled to receive her sentence June 11. In exchange for her plea, prosecutors dropped the prostitution-related charges, a Southern District of New York spokesperson told OCCRP.

The deal came after U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain on January 30 granted the American government’s request to keep much of the case secret on grounds of national security under the Classified Information Procedures Act.

Zarubina’s indictment alleged that she was recruited by the FSB in her native city of Tomsk to develop contacts at American think tanks in a bid to induce more pro-Russia views. She was given the code name Alyssa, the indictment said.

Zarubina’s social media accounts showed her across the U.S. at international relations conferences, and her LinkedIn page listed her as also working for a UN-affiliated non-profit called Sail of Hope. 

Zarubina came to the attention of the FBI when agents were investigating her employer, Elena Branson, who ran the Russian Center in New York. 

Branson fled shortly before a federal indictment in March 2022 alleging she was an unregistered foreign agent for Russia who spread propaganda and facilitated Russian government objectives. Branson’s case remains open because she has not returned to face trial. 

As Zarubina awaited trial, she began texting with an investigating FBI agent, alternately sending sexually suggestive messages and threatening texts. When her texting persisted despite judge warnings and an order to get counseling for alcohol abuse, she was ordered into detention ahead of her trial, which was scheduled for June this year.

Some of her texts also indicated she saw similarities between her case and another Russian woman sent to influence prominent Americans, Maria Butina.

Screenshots of Zarubina texts entered as evidence by prosecutors showed her complaining to the FBI agent that her case was getting less attention than Butina’s. 

Now a Russian legislator and television personality, Butina achieved notoriety when she was discovered to be an unregistered agent of Russia who befriended leaders of the National Rifle Association. She pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy charges and served time in prison before being deported from the U.S.