Russian blogger faces 20 years in prison for violating US sanctions to send drones and missiles

The US court has found Russian blogger Kristina Puzyreva guilty of violating sanctions against supplying components for missiles.

She faces a 20-year prison sentence, according to the US Ministry of Justice. 

The components shipped in violation of export control and sanctions legislation were later found on Russian weapons platforms and in radio intelligence equipment on Ukraine's battlefield.

US law enforcement officials said that the suspect and her co-defendants allegedly purchased and shipped millions of dollars worth of US-made electronics to support the Kremlin in its ongoing attacks on Ukraine.

Her money laundering conspiracy was directly linked to 298 shipments of $7 million worth of restricted technology to the front line.

Puzyreva and her husband Nikolai Goltsev traveled from Canada to meet with defendant Salimdzhon Nasriddinov in Brooklyn on multiple occasions.

The blogger used numerous bank accounts to conduct financial transactions as part of her scheme.

The government seized $20,000 in cash from the New York hotel room where the defendant was arrested.

US authorities confiscated about $1.68 million in connection with this export scheme.

A businessman was recently detained in the US, supplying semiconductors to Russian companies affiliated with the FSB in order to circumvent sanctions.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia had learned to circumvent Western sanctions imposed on Moscow for its full-scale war.

On February 8, the US imposed new sanctions against Russia related to diamond imports.

Last December, the US government imposed sanctions on more than 250 individuals and organizations in Russia and other countries related to war.

The US also imposed new sanctions against suppliers of military technology to Russia, targeting more than 30 individuals and almost 200 legal entities.