The media reported that Zarubina lived in Tomsk, and after moving to the United States, she began working for Russian intelligence. The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation assigned her the code name “Alice”.
The woman had to collect information and, if necessary, enter into intimate relationships with people.
In December 2025, a New York court arrested her on charges that she lied to the FBI about contacts with Russian intelligence, as well as transporting women for the purpose of prostitution, wrote the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).
Former American journalist and transgender woman Sarah Ashton-Cirillo helped expose her.
Until 2019, she was a man, Michael John Cirillo. In 2022, she joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces as a combat medic, the BBC wrote.
In an interview with NV, published on March 11, she said that she met Zarubina in 2024 in the United States during a business trip to a NATO conference. The meeting took place at a private dinner at the home of a Russian opposition leader who lives in the United States and at the same time has ties to Ukraine.
During this dinner, Zarubina’s behavior aroused the woman’s suspicion. “I conveyed my concerns to management in Ukraine, noting that she and her entourage were most likely acting as agents,” she said.
In July 2024, an investigation into Zarubina was launched. In November 2024, the United States announced her arrest. She was detained and then released on bail.
In the spring of 2025, the Russian woman herself showed a “romantic” interest in Ashton-Cirillo.
“After consulting with colleagues from the United Front, I went to New York to see her. What began as her attempt to take me into development gradually turned into a relationship during which I was able to obtain a significant amount of information from her,” the American said.
According to her, their relationship lasted eight months.
She noted that Zarubina, who used the honey trap, ended up giving her a significant amount of information.
