• What Happened: Nomma Zarubina, a 35-year-old suspected Russian spy living in Brooklyn, pleaded guilty to two counts of making false statements after admitting she worked for the Kremlin under the code name "Alyssa" since December 2020.
  • Why It Matters: Zarubina was tasked by Russian handlers to infiltrate Washington think tanks, military communities, and media circles, and her drunk late-night texts to an FBI agent, including "Catch me baby," ultimately landed her back behind bars.
  • Bottom Line: She faces up to 10 years in prison at her June 11 sentencing and is expected to be deported following her felony conviction.

You genuinely cannot make this stuff up.

A suspected Russian spy from Brooklyn who spent years infiltrating Washington political and media circles just pleaded guilty to lying to federal authorities, and her downfall came courtesy of a 4 a.m. drunk text to the FBI agent investigating her that read, "Catch me baby."

Nomma Zarubina, a bleached-blond 35-year-old who had been living in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, was first arrested in November 2024 on charges she lied about her dealings with Kremlin intelligence operatives. She was released on bail. Then the texts started.

"Catch me baby," she texted the federal agent at 4:17 in the morning. "I am sooooo bad," she wrote the same night, later admitting she sent the messages while drinking heavily.

A judge warned her to stop. She did not stop. During one night in November 2025 alone, she messaged the same agent 65 times, alternating between "I love you" and calling him a name too colorful to print when he did not respond.

During summer 2024 meetings with the FBI, Zarubina confessed she had been working for the Kremlin since December 2020 under the code name "Alyssa." Her Russian handlers had tasked her with networking at DC think tanks, building connections in the military community, and cultivating relationships with journalists. The goal was to identify Americans who could be invited to Russia and converted to the "Russian way of thinking."

She had denied any contact with Russian spy agents in three separate FBI interviews in 2021, 2022, and 2023. She only came clean, she told the court, because she had developed feelings for the investigating agent.

Zarubina pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts of making false statements. She faces up to 10 years in prison and is expected to be deported.

The Cold War never really ended. It just got a lot weirder.