Alexey Brayman seemed to live a quiet suburban life in Merrimack. But a federal indictment accuses Brayman of shipping technology used in military weapons from his New Hampshire home to Russia for an intelligence network called Serniya. The technology he allegedly shipped includes semiconductors and oscilloscopes – common items that can also be used in tanks, fighter jets, and missiles in the Russian war against Ukraine.
NHPR Morning Edition host Rick Ganley spoke with Boston Globe reporter Hanna Krueger, who is reporting on Brayman's involvement in the international smuggling ring. Below is a transcript of their conversation.
Transcript:
Rick Ganley: Hanna, this story feels like it's right out of a spy novel. Tell us more about Alexey Brayman and his involvement in this smuggling ring. What was his role?
Hanna Krueger: Alexey Brayman was a 30-something-year-old man living just outside Concord, New Hampshire. [He had a] suburban home [with] blow up Santas outside, SUV with a baby on board logo – a seemingly a suburban lifestyle. But Alexey often had stacks of cardboard boxes that would show up on his front porch. Neighbors took notice. They called it an unusual amount of cardboard boxes full of no one knew what. But this indictment shows that those were actually full of these highly sensitive electronics that are often used to create advanced missiles and weapon systems that Russia needs to wage war in Ukraine. So he was one pit stop in a very large network of arms smuggling and technology smuggling that Russia was using to sustain its war machine.
Rick Ganley: What exactly are these materials that Brayman was smuggling?
Hanna Krueger: So I would say the most blockbuster one is something called a semiconductor, which is pretty much a computer chip. They're in iPhones and PlayStations, but they also are necessary to run guided missiles and tanks and fighter jets. They allow for geolocation and for specific targeting when it comes to missiles, which has been very important in this particular war in Ukraine, as they increasingly target electrical grids and some civilian infrastructure.
Rick Ganley: So these are just basic electronic components that you might find in just about any electronic device. But Russia has been trying to get these and obtain these circuits because they have a shortage of them in Russia or they're prevented from having them by sanction. What's the reason that they don't they aren't able to obtain them legally?
Hanna Krueger: So there's a lot of tight sanctions on them that have only increased, obviously, this year with the war in Ukraine. Russia has long relied on Western countries to obtain these electronics there. While they're ubiquitous, they are hard to make. And Russia is not a country that has the capability of making them on their own. The US is one of a few countries who is able to make them. And ever since the Cold War, Russia has been dependent on the US and other Western countries to get these things. And with the sanctions getting tighter, they are running out of a stockpile that they were able to make in the post Cold War years. And now they need to find new ways to get these things in order to keep themselves afloat.
Rick Ganley: You reported in the Globe that this ring is part of a Russian intelligence network that's tasked with obtaining all this Western tech. Tell me more about this network, and do we know how big it is?
Hanna Krueger: I don't think we do know how big it is at this point. But it's this network called the Serniya network, which is a Moscow-based engineering company on face value. But what it really is, is a global network of so-called procurement agents, which are people affiliated with Russia who are tasked with obtaining Western microelectronics. And we don't know how many there are. This indictment shows seven defendants who were caught up in this. And it just kind of shows a web from the top down. You'll have a Russian based entity such as Rosatom or even the Russian intelligence agencies. And they'll say, "I want a semiconductor. I want 45 semiconductors." And then someone will contact one of the agents in the US, and that agent will go about trying to secure those goods. They'll say that they're getting them on behalf of a front company that's based in the US. And then in this particular case, that front company was actually addressed out of Alexey Brayman's New Hampshire home. So those items would show up there. Alexey would allegedly repackage them and then send them on to countries like Estonia and Germany, or another person would then ferry them across the border and into Russia.
Rick Ganley: And it's been almost a year now since Russia has invaded Ukraine. How is Russia using this smuggled technology to sustain its war?
Hanna Krueger: Well, I mean, it's necessary for systems that are necessary to service their fighter jets. It's necessary to guide those missiles that we see landing on electrical grids and making Kiev go dark this winter. They're necessary for the ballistic missiles that hit bridges that cordon off cities and genuinely everything that makes up modern warfare in this day and age.
Rick Ganley: Do we have any idea what kind of effect taking down this network or at least denting this network in the U.S. will have on Russian military prowess?
Hanna Krueger: It's hard to say at this point because we don't know if this is the tip of the iceberg or a central node in this network. We don't know how many networks like Serniya there are. I got to know experts who are deep in the weeds on this, and they say that it's hard to know where this fits in the grand scheme. But every network that is taken down or compromised in some way is vital because that means that hundreds to thousands of components aren't getting to Russia. And when they're so reliant on these technologies, any disruption can really make a difference. It's a big deal in that this means that some weapons won't be able to be made maybe this month or maybe this year. And at this time, when Russia is not doing as well as it thought it would in this war, that can make a difference.
Certainly, I would say that there were three defendants who were arrested in this case, but that does mean that there are four who are still at large, which shows that this network does rely on lower men on the totem pole, such as Alexey, but also in this case, a guy named Vadim who was located in Estonia, and he was tasked with ferrying things into Russia. So while those people are kind of taken out of the network, you still have the major players of the whole operation still in Russia and presumably now finding new ways to continue this war machine. So this is something that will be ongoing. Experts kind of describe it as a whack a mole game. This has been the case for the last 50 years and it's going to continue for a long time.
