Two Montrealers were arrested in New York for exporting weapons components found in Ukraine

The American judiciary announced that two Russian men and a Russian woman were arrested on Tuesday in New York and charged with exporting electronic components from the United States that were used by the Russian army and found on the ground in Ukraine.

Nikolai Goltsev, 37, and his wife, Kristina Pozyreva, 32, both Canadian and Russian and residents of Montreal, as well as Salimdzhon Nasreddinov, 52, who has dual Russian and Tajik citizenship and lives in Brooklyn, are suspected of “sending” the crime, said Ivan Arvelo, the special agent in charge. Homeland Security Investigations in New York said in a statement that in 2022 and 2023, “more than 300 shipments of prohibited materials, worth approximately $10 million, arrived on the Russian battlefield.”

The three suspects allegedly used two Brooklyn-based companies to obtain, under the guise of their legal businesses, electronic components and integrated circuits that were then illegally exported to Russia, according to the indictment.

“Some electronic components and integrated circuits of the same type, model and serial number as those shipped by the defendants were found in parts of weapons and intelligence signals equipment seized in Ukraine,” the US justice added in a press release, citing Radio Reconnaissance Systems. Light guided missiles, helicopters, drones and combat tanks.

The three suspects are accused of smuggling goods from the United States and conspiring to violate export control laws. According to the indictment filed by the federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, the suspects were fully aware of the purpose of their exports because the Russian companies they worked with were directly linked to the military.

The prosecution requested the imprisonment of the three suspects.