Illinois woman sentenced to 2 years in prison for sending military equipment to Russia

A 62-year-old woman has been convicted of illegally exporting “defense articles,” including thermal imaging scopes and night-vision goggles to Russia and sentenced to two years in federal prison.

According to prosecutors with the United States Attorney’s Central District of California, Elena Shifrin, a Mundelein, Illinois resident, participated along with multiple other people in shipping more than 60 items to Russia between 2017 and 2020 without obtaining approval from the U.S. State Department.

Shifrin pled guilty to violating the Arms Export Control Act in February, 2022.

According to U.S. attorneys, the items were purchased and mailed to Shifrin and other co-conspirators in Illinois and California and then mailed to Russia using fictitious senders and addresses.

The items were falsely identified as “non-export items such as clothing and concealed the defense articles in other items such as toolkits and kitchen appliances.”

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Another co-conspirator sentenced, 2 remain on the run

Igor Panchernikov, a 43-year-old Corona, California resident and one of Shifrin’s co-conspirators who previously served in the United States Air Force Reserve, pleaded guilty in March 2023 to one count of conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act and was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison in June 2023.

Two other men associated with the case, Boris Polosin, of Russia, and Vladimir Gohman, of Israel, remain fugitives.

A fifth individual, 59-year-old Vladimir Pridacha of Volo, Illinois, had his charges for the case dismissed on January 19.

This arrest is the latest in a continuing series of investigations into arms shipments to Russia.

In June, U.S. attorneys announced the conviction of 58-year-old Dimitry Timashev for “conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act by exporting firearm parts, components, and ammunition to Russia without the required authorization.”

In exchange for the arms shipments, Timashev’s daughter received school tuition and rent for an apartment in Ekaterinburg, Russia.

In October 2023 a Brooklyn, New York resident, along with two Canadian nationals, was arrested, “in connection with a sophisticated global procurement scheme in which the defendants used two corporate entities registered in Brooklyn to unlawfully source and purchase two million dollars’ worth of dual-use electronics on behalf of end-users in Russia, including companies affiliated with the Russian military.”

Max Hauptman is a Trending Reporter for USA TODAY. He can be reached at MHauptman@gannett.com