FBI Arrests Russian Agent: Nomma Zarubina
Nomma Aleksandrovna Zarubina, code name “Alice” or “Alyssa”, has been charged by the US Government over hiding her ties to the Russian Intelligence Agency, FSB. The FBI has been in contact with her for four years, bringing her in for questioning and catching her in multiple lies.
She was recruited in 2020 and directed to, “establish a network of contacts in the US, targeting journalists, military personnel, think tank researchers, and university professors specializing in Russia, with the goal of advancing the Russian narrative.” (RFERL.org)
Zarubina was born October 3, 1990 (according to her social media) in Tomsk, Russia. She got her degree in geopolitics from St. Petersburg State University and went on to the Russian Academy of National Economy where she got a master’s in international security.
Her Instagram shows that she developed an early interest in modeling and fashion, as she’s posted a number of modeling shots from her late teens and 20s.
Zarubina traveled to the middle east in 2014, posting about her travels in a kaffiyeh wearing a “Free Palestine” t-shirt and a snapshot sitting on a street in Israel. She is not clear on where in Africa she traveled, but considering the proximity to Israel, it’s likely she was in Egypt, possibly the Sinai. She mentions snorkeling in the Arabian Peninsula.
Zarubina got a visa to study in the US in January 2015 and officially immigrated to the US in 2016, settling in New York. Strangely, she posted her visa information and student ID publicly…
She also posted about visiting the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC the following year, in 2017.
On April 8, 2016 in Brooklyn, New York, she married an American man and the two had a child together.
Zarubina’s LinkedIn profile describes her as an “experienced Political Adviser Assistant with over 7 years of experience with professional competence and mastery of the subject and exceptional ability to execute and supervise to ensure high-quality administrative work.”
She is also allegedly a “decolonization expert.”
Her Instagram shows her to travel often, posting from Manhattan, New York where she lives to Washington D.C., Chicago, Kashan, Iran, Sunny Isles Beach Miami, Dubai, UAE, and multiple locations in Russian like Saint Petersburg, Moscow and Tomsk.
Her page has the feeling of a travel influencer and aspiring model, acting as a kind of representative, evidently traveling in pursuit of Russian politics and Economic Development. She posts frequently at various UN forums and political gatherings with hashtags like #politics #globalcompact #Nasdaq #UnitedNations #events #fashion #UN #representative #consolidation #Russianconsulate #youthforum #politicians #contacts #heritage.
Before her recruitment, her social media posts are about work in Russian-American foreign affairs, her travels, selfies with UN representatives and the occasional modeling blast-from-the-past posts.
She began working as a political affairs officer at the Russian Cultural Center in New York (RCNY), some sources say she was an event manager. Her LinkedIn lists some of her duties as, “Planning and coordination of training seminars and programs,” among other things.
The RCNY was founded by Elena Branson, a Russian with dual-citizenship who was arrested in 2020 when the FBI accused her of “working for the Russian government and receiving assignments and funding from high-ranking Russian officials without filing the proper FARA registration.”
Branson fled to Russia, where Zarubina often visits. Branson also became godmother to Zarubina’s daughter. According to her file, Zarubina received assistance from Branson.
The FBI claims that Zarubina’s contact with the FSB began in December of 2020 while Zarubina was visiting Tomsk. The Russian officer she met with gave her a code name, and instructed her to make contacts with Americans in certain occupations, such as journalists and military personal.
Zarubina is alleged to have handed over personal data of American citizens to the FSB. She was likely already working with Russia before her meetings with the FSB, which seems transparently reflected in her social media.
Her political views seems to have made a dramatic shift in 2019, when she appears to have turned into an ardent US patriot, supporting Trumps’ re-election campaign and condemning Putin with images of herself reading a book about the US Election called, “The Plot to Hack America”.
Photos on her Instagram also show her at a protest holding a sign that says, “Stop Putin’s Gang,” in addition to her walking about NY in a Trump beanie, and writing on a white board, “Stop propagandize LGBT everywhere, where there are children”.
In reality, this was all just an attempt to blend in with conservative Americans with similar ideologies.
After years of Zarubina taking part in discussion panels and activist seminars across the globe, she says she won’t flee the United States, and will stand and face what she says are false charges. She is currently out on $25,000 bail and restricted to New York.