{"id":115873,"date":"2026-01-29T01:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T01:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/115873\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T01:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T01:34:11","slug":"arms-dealer-sentenced-for-exporting-american-weapons-to-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/115873\/","title":{"rendered":"Arms dealer sentenced for exporting American weapons to Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella Jr. speaks at a news conference in New York on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. Photo: Angelina Katsanis\/AP<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>DOWNTOWN \u2014 In federal court in Brooklyn, Kyrgyz national Sergei Zharnovnikov was sentenced to 39 months for conspiracy to export American-made firearms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The defendant illegally exported firearms and ammunition worth over $1.5 million from the United States to Russia through Kyrgyzstan. Zharnovnikov does not have lawful resident status and faces deportation upon sentencing.<\/p>\n

The proceeding was held before United States District Judge Hector Gonzalez.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella Jr., FBI New York Field Office Acting Assistant Director in Charge Terence G. Reilly and New York Field Office Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Carson of the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), Office of Export Enforcement, announced the sentence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe defendant bought American-made, military-grade firearms and ammunition and re-exported them to Russia \u2014 the same brand of firearms and ammunition known to be used in Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine,\u201d stated Nocella.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHis blatant lies directly fueled Russia\u2019s military siege against Ukraine with American-made weapons,\u201d Reilly added.<\/p>\n

According to court filings, Zharnovnikov was an arms dealer who operated through a company that he owned, located in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since at least March 2020, he conspired with others to export firearms and ammunition controlled by the DOC from the United States to Russia, routing approximately $1.58 million worth of U.S.-manufactured firearms and ammunition.<\/p>\n

In one transaction, Zharnovnikov entered into a five\u2011year, $900,000 contract with a company in the United States to purchase and export their firearms to Kyrgyzstan.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

DOC issued a license for the company to export firearms to Zharnovnikov\u2019s company but prohibited their export or re-export to Russia. Zharnovnikov re-exported them to Russia anyway, including semi\u2011automatic hybrid rifle-pistols, without a license.<\/p>\n

In another transaction, Zharnovnikov re-exported five rifles from a second U.S. Company to Russia, via Kyrgyzstan.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here, too, the DOC license prohibited the rifles from being re-exported out of Kyrgyzstan.\u00a0 The second company\u2019s rifles are used by Russian military snipers in battalions known to be active in key battles in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Zharnovnikov also conspired to illegally re-export U.S.\u2011manufactured ammunition from Italy through Kyrgyzstan into Russia, in violation of U.S. law.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zharnovnikov and his associates placed the order and received 13,000 rounds of ammunition worth $23,000 from a third U.S. company. The license for this ammunition required that it stay in Italy. Zharnovnikov flouted U.S. law and re-exported it to Kyrgyzstan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The brand has reportedly been used in Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s case is being handled by the Office\u2019s National Security and Cybercrime Section.\u00a0 Assistant United States\u00a0 Attorney Ellen H. Sise is in charge of the prosecution, along with Trial Attorney Leslie Esbrook of the National Security Division\u2019s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, with assistance from Litigation Analyst Rebecca Roth.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a><\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella Jr. speaks at a news conference in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,3308,8498,4414,9,24,63,9045,51325,3209,23700,10431,29515,19038],"class_list":["post-115873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-daily-bulletin","tag-firearms-guns","tag-joseph-nocella","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-russia","tag-russia-ukraine-conflict","tag-sentencing","tag-smuggling","tag-u-s-attorneys-office-for-the-eastern-district-of-new-york-edny","tag-u-s-district-court-for-the-eastern-district-of-new-york-edny","tag-weapons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}