Latvian National, Kansas Business Owner Indicted on Charges They Smuggled Equipment to Russia

Some of the equipment was allegedly sent directly to the Federal Security Service of Russia (FSB), the agency that succeeded the KGB.
Latvian National, Kansas Business Owner Indicted on Charges They Smuggled Equipment to Russia
A rescuer works at a site of a building, damaged during a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 21, 2024. Alina Smutko/Reuters
Alice Giordano
Alice Giordano
Freelance reporter
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A Latvian national and an executive at a Kansas avionics parts company have been indicted on federal charges for allegedly smuggling advanced U.S. aircraft equipment and aerospace technology to Russia just before and during its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Oleg Chistyakov and Douglas Edward Robertson are accused of evading a U.S. ban on exports of certain avionics equipment to Russia, according to a grand jury indictment handed down on March 27. They allegedly worked with a third co-conspirator, Cyril Gregory Buyanovsky, who pleaded guilty in December to charges of conspiracy and money laundering for his part in the scheme.

Alice Giordano
Alice Giordano
Freelance reporter
Alice Giordano is a freelance reporter for The Epoch Times. She is a former news correspondent for The Boston Globe, Associated Press, and the New England bureau of The New York Times.