An official Hebrew channel said that an Israeli was arrested in the United States on suspicion of smuggling “sensitive” military and technological equipment to Russia that could be used to assemble nuclear weapons.
The Kan channel added, on Saturday, that Alexei Breiman, 35, from Haifa, northern Israel, was arrested with an American citizen and 5 other Russian citizens.
According to the channel, Breiman, an Israeli with American citizenship, was arrested last Wednesday in the US state of New Hampshire.
According to the indictment filed against Breiman, he was “working as part of an international Russian spy network involved in arms smuggling and circumventing sanctions imposed on the Russian Federation following the war in Ukraine.”
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On February 24, Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine, which was followed by angry international reactions and the imposition of “tough” economic and financial sanctions on Moscow.
According to the indictment, the Israeli received “a steady supply of electronic test equipment used in quantum computing, the development of hypersonic and nuclear weapons, and other military applications.”
“He (Breiman) was the point of transportation of materials that were illegally exported from the United States to Russia,” the indictment said.
The channel said that the Israeli citizen and those arrested with him may face, if convicted, a 30-year prison sentence.
For its part, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said, “The smuggling network began operating in 2017, and Berman and his colleagues bought millions of dollars’ worth of military equipment and technology and transferred them to Russia, and they are accused of, among other things, fraud and money laundering.”
She noted that a large part of the smuggling operations took place in the spring of this year, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.