Alice in Wonderland: Russian Spy and Potential Honeypot Roams Free After Indictment in New York
Russian Spy Nomma Zarubina, Codenamed 'Alice,' Infiltrated Nearly Every Corner of Washington D.C. and New York
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American naiveté about Russian women quietly working for the Kremlin and infiltrating our institutions strikes again. Let’s be honest—there’s nothing particularly “covert” about it.
Shortly before moving to the United States, Nomma Zarubina earned a master’s degree in Russian National Security from the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), a state-run institution in Moscow
A Russian national, Zarubina moved to the United States in early 2015. On November 21, 2024, she was indicted in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) on charges related to espionage on behalf of the FSB. According to the indictment, Zarubina was recruited in 2020 by an FSB officer from her hometown of Tomsk, a city in Siberia.
However, this may not tell the full story—or even the most important part of it.
Despite the serious nature of the allegations, Zarubina was arrested and released on a $25,000 bond, as the charges were limited to making false statements to the FBI. (More on this later.)
The indictment also revealed an intriguing detail: Zarubina was assigned the codename Алиса by the FSB, a clear nod to “Alice in Wonderland” (Алиса в Стране Чудес in Russian). Curiously, the Department of Justice mistranslated her codename as “Alyssa,” likely confusing it with the Russian equivalent “Алисса,” which features two ‘s’ like its English counterpart. Her actual codename was Alice, a fitting moniker given her adventures through the labyrinth of U.S. politics and diplomacy.
The working theory presented in the indictment has a major flaw: it’s highly improbable that a remote FSB office in Siberia would recruit and manage a covert agent in the United States who had already been mingling with influential figures such as the future CIA Director, retired U.S. generals, and prominent Washington think-tank leaders. Russian intelligence simply doesn’t operate this way. It would be akin to the FBI running a spy in the Kremlin from an office in Puerto Rico—logistically and operationally implausible.
Here, we will present the alternate theory concerning the Russian spy’s real employer and how her past personal life came back with a vengeance to derail her espionage mission in America.
An alternate theory better explains the involvement of the Siberian FSB officer referenced in the indictment. His interaction with ‘Alice’ likely stemmed from a personal connection rather than an official recruitment effort. Meanwhile, key details point to a larger, more strategic player: the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).
Who controls the Russian embassy and consulates in the United States? The SVR. Beginning in 2017, ‘Alice’ was frequently seen at these diplomatically protected facilities, long before the supposed FSB recruitment in 2020.
Who operates the Russian House New York, where she worked starting in 2016? The SVR.
Who runs the Russian NGO Sail of Hope, which gave her unrestricted access to the United Nations in 2018? The SVR.
These connections suggest her primary affiliation was with the SVR all along, and the Siberian FSB officer’s involvement was likely an amateur misstep rather than a calculated recruitment effort.
The Theory:
The FSB officer referenced in the indictment as recruiting ‘Alice’ in 2020 was likely a childhood friend from her hometown of Tomsk in Siberia. A plausible explanation for his involvement is that his approach was personal rather than professional, an attempt to rekindle their past connection. It’s possible he was oblivious to the fact that she was already an active SVR agent. His actions, likely amateurish and clumsy, would have been a serious inconvenience for ‘Alice,’ potentially compromising her operational security. This breach could easily have drawn the attention of U.S. intelligence.
To mitigate the fallout, the SVR may have instructed her to disclose the FSB contact to the FBI preemptively. By doing so, she could protect her SVR cover and avoid the far greater risk of being exposed and imprisoned.
Her disclosure to the FBI in 2020 fits this theory. She framed her interactions with the FSB as innocuous, saying something along the lines of: “I have nothing to do with the FSB, but my childhood friend, who is now an FSB officer in Siberia, reached out to recruit me. I think he’s infatuated with me.” Presented as a voluntary admission, this explanation would have appeared credible and deflected suspicion from her true activities.
For the next five years, Zarubina maintained contact with the FBI, feeding them limited, inconsequential information about the FSB while continuing her work for the SVR. It was only when the FBI grew frustrated with her deception that she was charged with making false statements in 2024.
The timeline strongly supports the theory that Zarubina was recruited by the SVR between 2014 and 2017, well before the FSB contact in 2020. The SVR is unlikely to overlook a RANEPA graduate trained in national security, especially one who immediately moved to New York and began engaging with geopolitical institutions at the heart of global diplomacy. It is plausible that the SVR facilitated her move to the U.S. following her graduation or recruited her at the latest by 2017, when her frequent presence at Russian embassies and consulates became evident.
Her financial circumstances also raise red flags. It is difficult to imagine a 24-year-old from a Siberian village independently affording the costs of moving to New York, let alone sustaining an extravagant lifestyle involving extensive travel to destinations like Washington, Miami, Dubai, Mexico, and Iran. For at least her first year in New York, she appears to have had no formal employment, making it likely that her funding came from the SVR.
Let’s look at a very limited selection of her countless social media posts to build a timeline.
January 2015 - B1/B2 U.S. Visa granted, multiple-entry, for 3 years. A person on this visa can remain in the United States for a maximum of 6 months at a time, and usually not more than 6 months total per year - otherwise you’re effectively residing in the country rather than temporarily visiting for business or pleasure.
March 2015 - ‘Alice’ arrives in the United States. Earliest photo is dated March 2nd. On March 5th, she’s in an Atlantic City casino.
March 7th, 2015 - ‘Alice’ immediately travels to Washington DC upon arrival in the United States.
May 2015 - After a few months in the United States, ‘Alice’ returns to Russia and visits her hometown. The 2-month stay in the US would be considered reasonable for B1/B2, though on the longer side. The return to Russia was necessary to ensure her tourist visa did not get revoked.
June 2015 - …. and she is back in America the following month!
November 2015 - ‘Alice’ becomes a “student” in the US while on a B1/B2 tourist visa?! Oddly, there is no record of any “Technology Career Services International” that can be found online.
There’s a dental office and a medical office at this address, dentists Vladimir Potepalov, Michael Kohl, and doctor Martha Karetny. All are Russians. There’s certainly no educational institution here, nor could 726 Ave Z in Brooklyn be her address of residence as it is a commercial building. The building itself is owned by “Bay Abstract Corp” represented by a Russian attorney named David Fainkich.
April 8th, 2016 - ‘Alice’ gets married in New York to Levon Meliksetov, an Uzbek with whom she’d gone to Washington in the preceding months.
‘Alice’ will give birth to a daughter in August 2018 and Levon will divorce her in January 2021 upon learning that he is not the father of the child he had been raising as his own. She cheated on him and got pregnant by “engaging in numerous acts of unprotected sex with a man by the name of Oswaldo Juarez” while in Mexico in November 2017.
Ok. Back to the timeline…
July 2016 - “Keep Calm and Love Russia”
The July 2016 photo warrants an explanation: it shows a Lexus, evidently owned by a Russian in New York, displaying the flag of “Donetsk People’s Republic,” the puppet government setup by the Kremlin in occupied Ukraine, on its trunk. This flag represents a territory in Ukraine that Russia invaded in 2014. ‘Alice’ posted the photo with a comment explicitly endorsing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Note that in May of 2024 she pretended to have supported Ukraine from 2014 in its fight for independence from Russia. Given the above, this is clearly false.
September 2016 - ‘Alice’ starts working at the Russian Center New York (RCNY), an outpost for the Russian Foreign Intelligence (SVR). There, she was mentored by Elena Branson, another Russian spy who was charged in March 2022 but had already fled back to Russia in October 2020 following an FBI raid of the RCNY in September 2020.
Branson, a known Russian spy, is Zarubina’s daughter’s god-mother.
June 2017 - back in Russia, wearing a “KGB Summer Camp” t-shirt.
The theory that she has been working for the SVR for years since at least 2017 is further reinforced by her constant appearances at the Russian consulate in New York and the embassy in Washington, DC throughout the years, starting in 2017.
From 2018 ‘Alice’ was tasked with infiltrating the United Nations in New York through a Russian NGO Sail of Hope, which had a consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since 2002.
As a result of her new role with the United Nations, it appears ‘Alice’ almost immediately had an opportunity to meet our current CIA Director Bill Burns at the Harvard Club in New York. Mr. Burns, former ambassador to Russia, signed a copy of his book “The Back Channel” for her, published that year.
‘Alice’ continued to flutter her wings all around New York, Washington DC, and across the world.
Feb 2019 - Professor Jonathan D. Ostry, International Monetary Fund (IMF).
‘Alice’ formally represented the Russian government at the United Nations in at least as early as February 2019, but an FSB officer from the boondocks of Siberia recruited her in December 2020? Give me a break. Yes, it happened, but it was probably a rogue operation by a guy who knew her from youth who happened to become an FSB officer, to rekindle a personal relationship with her, without the involvement of the FSB headquarters in Moscow.
July 2019 - Back in Russia for the summer
February 2020 - ‘Alice’ with Russia’s representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya.
July 2020 - ‘Alice’ working at the Russian Embassy in Washington
October 2020 - the FBI speaks with Zarubina for the first time according to the indictment.
December 2020 - ‘Alice’ is formally recruited by her childhood friend who is now an FSB officer in Siberia during her trip back home.
February 2021 - Miami, Florida, immediately following her trip back to Russia
April 2021 - Zarubina speaks again with the FBI about the FSB.
June 2021 - St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which is mentioned in the indictment.
July 2021 - ‘Alice’ working at the Russian Consulate in New York.
December 2021 - ‘Alice’ back in Russia on Russian State Television.
February 2022 - ‘Alice’ representing the Russian Embassy in Kazakhstan.
Following the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24th, 2022, it’s as if ‘Alice’ got activated and goes on a blitz to establish as many contacts as she possibly can in the sphere of military, politicians, and geopolitical thinktanks in the United States. This is the domain of the SVR, which often tends to operate out in the open to collect intelligence in the US. She is able to immediately infiltrate the Center for Strategic & International Studies, a powerful Washington thinktank.
April 2022 - “Thomas Graham is an American political scientist, Honored Fellow of the Council for International Relations, and former adviser to US President George Bush on Russia and Eurasia.”
April 2022 - Miami
May 2022 - Harvard in Massachusetts, the National Press Club in Washington and Iran.
August 15th, 2022 - Zarubina speaks with the FBI.
September 2022 - United Nations in New York.
October 2022 - “John Hamre is president and chief executive officer of CSIS. He served as the 26th Deputy Secretary of Defense of the United States.”
November 2022 - Russian spy ‘Alice’ helps devise policies to protect American national security at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), a powerful Washington thinktank where she was granted a fellowship. You cannot make this up…
November 2022 - ‘Alice’ drinking with Fiona Hill in New York.
January 3rd, 2023 - Zarubina meets with the FBI.
January 2023 - Almost a year after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, ‘Alice’ is suddenly protesting against the Russian mission to the United Nations, despite the fact that she was literally part of the Russian mission to the UN just 4 months prior. The façade is necessary to ensure she can continue to collect intelligence for the Russia around New York and Washington.
January 2023 - ‘Alice’ with New York Attorney General Letitia James and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
January 2023 - ‘Alice’ with Bill Pomeranz, in charge of Russia policy at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC, another mighty thinktank.
L-O-L
Leveraging her successful and ongoing infiltration of CSIS, she encounters President Trump’s Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
February 2023 - ‘Alice’ has drinks with a bunch of US military officers who occupy key positions.
Russian spy ‘Alice’ goes to the US Senate with US Institute of Diplomacy and Human Rights President, Manuel Oancia.
June 2023 - Russian spy ‘Alice’ played the role of the Commander of U.S. EUCOM forces in war games against Russia at Harvard. HA-HA.
July 2023 - ‘Alice’ with Elizabeth Shackelford, former US diplomat.
September 2023 - Harvard, again.
September 20, 2023 - Zarubina meets with the FBI again and tells them about another FSB officer, another guy with whom she had a “personal relationship” back in college when she was studying National Security in Moscow.
May 2024 - ‘Alice’ drinking in New York with Michael Froman, President of Council of Foreign Relations (CFR).
June 2024 - with retired Major General Lawlor, former Supreme Allied Commander Europe.
June 27, 2024 - Zarubina meets with the FBI again.
June 2024 - ‘Alice’ meets the very recently retired General McKenzie, former commander for the US Central Command.
July 24, 2024 - Zarubina meets with the FBI again.
Something the indictment against ‘Alice’ omits entirely is her systematic infiltration of the anti-Putin Russian diaspora groups in the US: Jamestown Foundation, Forum of Free States of Post-Russia; Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots in the United States; and Russian America for Democracy in Russia.
She embarked on this mission following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Such groups have long been targets for infiltration, surveillance, and discreditation around the world by … you guessed it: The SVR, not some FSB office in remote Siberia.
February 2023 - ‘Alice’ with Russian ‘opposition politicians’ Leonid Volkov and Lyubov Sobol in Washington DC.
April 2024 - ‘Alice’ with Ilya Ponomarev, the political leader of the Russian Freedom Legion, a military unit formally under the Ukrainian Armed Forces, composed of Russian nationals fighting against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the frontline.
CONCLUSION
Nomma Zarubina’s activities over the past decade strongly suggest she worked for Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), not merely as a target of FSB recruitment. The evidence paints a clear picture of calculated infiltration and intelligence collection, leveraging American naiveté and operating brazenly in plain sight.
Zarubina’s timeline reveals patterns consistent with SVR methods, including her involvement with Russian diplomatic outposts like the Russian House New York and her access to the United Nations through the SVR-controlled NGO Sail of Hope. Starting as early as 2016, she engaged in intelligence-gathering activities that align with SVR objectives, including attending high-level events, meeting key figures in U.S. policymaking, and infiltrating powerful think tanks like the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS).
The assertion in the indictment that an FSB officer from Siberia recruited her in 2020 seems secondary and possibly a personal attempt rather than a professional operation sanctioned by FSB headquarters. It is more plausible that Zarubina had been operating under SVR direction since at least 2014–2017, given her education in Russian national security, her immediate move to New York after graduation, and her constant presence at SVR-aligned entities.
Her financial means also raise significant questions. As a 24-year-old recent graduate, Zarubina demonstrated a lavish lifestyle incompatible with her nominal employment and visa status. Her constant travel, high-level connections, and luxurious living point to substantial financial backing, likely provided by the SVR to support her operations.
Zarubina’s interactions with the FBI further support this theory. Her attempts to downplay her involvement with the FSB, framing the contact as a personal matter, appear to be part of a larger strategy to protect her SVR cover. By volunteering limited information about her childhood friend in the FSB, she likely sought to appear cooperative while concealing her deeper ties to Russian intelligence.
The SVR’s hallmark of operating overtly while exploiting cultural gaps is evident in Zarubina’s approach. Her successful infiltration of American institutions, including high-level military and policymaking circles, underscores both her effectiveness and the vulnerability of U.S. systems to such tactics.
Ultimately, Zarubina’s behavior, travel patterns, and professional engagements align far more with an SVR agent’s profile than that of a naïve immigrant or a rogue FSB recruit. If she is indeed an SVR officer, her current bail status presents a serious risk of exfiltration by Russian intelligence—a scenario that U.S. authorities should prepare for urgently.
Nomma Zarubina’s next hearing in New York is scheduled for December 23rd, 2024.
What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments.
ATTACHMENTS - the Federal Complaint and the Bail Disposition documents were shared by Igor Slabykh, a lawyer at the Wilson Center, one of the institutions ‘Alice’ infiltrated:
Fantastic article. Makes one wonder if the FBI Counterintelligence Division is really so dumb as to not realize her actual role, or are they (i) trying to leverage her for some higher goal, (ii) too embarrassed to admit she's been operating under their noses for 4 years, or (iii) themselves corrupted by Russia, like their former head Charles McGonigal?
A couple of clarifications:
- The Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots in the United States is not an anti-Putin organization — quite the opposite, in fact. Zarubina was a part of the Council.
- Zarubina did not infiltrate Russian America for Democracy in Russia. We were fully aware of who she was and did not allow any infiltration. She attended one public event organized by RADR and attempted to connect with some of our regional coordinators, but those efforts were unsuccessful.