A Quebec woman who is languishing in one of the worst prisons in the United States for having participated in an illegal supply network for the Russian army claims that she was under the “obsessive” control of her husband at the time and hopes to obtain leniency of the American justice system, in particular because of his marital situation.
Kristina Puzyreva, a 32-year-old resident of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, was arrested in a Manhattan hotel with her partner, Nikolay Goltsev, last November.
The American authorities explained in an indictment that both would have organized from Quebec a network which illegally supplied the Russian army with strategic electronic components, systems whose export is restricted by law and which were used in missiles, tanks, drones, helicopters and other military equipment during the invasion of Ukraine.
According to American investigators, the material delivered to Moscow’s war machine thanks to the Quebec couple was found on the battlefield.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Russian Ka-52 helicopter on mission over Ukraine. Electronic components that would have been delivered by Quebecers were notably found on such devices.
The couple, who have dual Russian and Canadian nationality, have been detained in the United States ever since. In February, Mme Puzyreva pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy in connection with the case. Her husband, who is described in court documents as having a “long-standing” relationship with suppliers to the Russian military, is still awaiting trial.
Her husband “obsessively controlled” her
The court documents filed in M’s caseme Puzyreva indicates that the recommendations on the sentence to be imposed on the Quebecer will be between 18 and 24 months in prison. But according to his lawyer, various elements in his career militate in favor of a lenient sentence. Her situation could even justify sentencing her only for the time already spent in preventive detention, he says in a letter filed with the court.
“Mme Puzyreva was raised in a home with extreme levels of violence imposed by her father, and her co-defendant and husband, Nikolay Goltsev, obsessively controlled her in the years following their marriage, especially in the latter years,” he says. .
The lawyer adds that according to a pre-sentence report, his client’s role was limited in the case and she had “minimal knowledge” of her husband’s plan to circumvent sanctions against Russia.
Asked to react, Nikolay Goltsev’s lawyer indicated that his client wishes to help his partner in this ordeal. He would not comment on the allegations about their relationship. “Mr Goltsev fully supports his wife and wants to help her close this chapter of her life and move on to the next,” Mr Goltsev said.e Todd A. Spodek in an email to The Press.
Difficult detention conditions
Mme Puzyreva is due to receive her sentence next September. Until then, she remains detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn (MDC), a prison that constantly makes headlines in the United States for its horrific conditions.
Five years ago, the head of legal aid in New York told Huffington Post that aside from the rare “super maximum” penitentiaries designed to accommodate exceptionally dangerous criminals, “there is nothing worse than the MDC.”
Last January, an American judge refused to order the incarceration of a 70-year-old drug trafficker due to “horrible” conditions at the detention center, where detainees are often confined to their cells for 10 p.m. per day without access to visits, showers, classrooms and the gymnasium due to lack of staff.
“Mme Puzyreva had a lot of difficulty getting her basic needs taken care of. He was refused bedding, significant dental needs were ignored, etc. », Adds his lawyer, who tried without success to bring forward the imposition of the sentence in order to end it as quickly as possible.
“We’re going to get rich!” »
At the start of the proceedings, Mme Puzyreva introduced herself as a fashion industry worker who arrived in Canada 14 years ago, at the age of 18. She said she earned a little more than $32,000 a year.
The prosecution, for its part, demonstrated that her spouse’s clandestine electronic components export network had sold millions of dollars worth of merchandise to the Russian army and that Ms.me Puzyreva had received more than 130 packages at her residence on the West Island of Montreal as part of the sanctions evasion scheme. “We’re going to get rich!” “, she wrote to her partner in a text message submitted as evidence.
“If her line of business is men’s fashion, then she certainly has a secondary job here,” observed the federal prosecutor.
The story so far
February 24, 2022: Following the invasion of Ukraine, Washington imposes new sanctions on the export of electronic components to Russia.
October 31, 2023: A couple from Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Nikolay Goltsev and Kristina Puzyreva, are arrested in the United States and accused of having organized a nerve network for supplying the Russian war machine.
February 12, 2024: Kristina Puzyreva pleads guilty to money laundering conspiracy in Brooklyn.