A federal judge in the United States has sentenced a dual citizen of the U.S. and Russia to 41 months in prison for attempting to export aircraft to Russia illegally, in violation of U.S. sanctions, as reported by prosecutors.
Sergei Nechayev, 49, pleaded guilty to several charges, which include attempting to export items without the necessary license, smuggling, and providing false information in export documents, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia.
In addition to the prison term, Nechayev has also received a three-year period of supervised release.
Nechayev was apprehended in December 2024 and reached a plea agreement with prosecutors in September 2025.
The investigation was carried out by the U.S. Commerce Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Federal Aviation Administration.
Prosecutors indicated that from September 2022 to March 2023, Nechayev attempted to send two vintage Cessna light aircraft valued at approximately $170,000 from the U.S. to Russia.
These attempts occurred after the U.S. introduced expanded sanctions against Russia in February 2022, which mandated obtaining a special license from the Commerce Department for any aircraft exports to Russia.
According to prosecutors, Nechayev did not secure this necessary authorization.
Court documents revealed that Nechayev tried to bypass export regulations by routing the planes through third countries on paper and falsely claiming they were intended for an unnamed flight school.
He also presented forged export papers that listed fictitious end users in Turkey and Armenia.
A U.S. freight forwarder raised a flag on the shipment upon discovering that the company noted as the recipient was registered in Moscow, prosecutors stated.
Anti-corruption researcher Ilya Shumanov mentioned that Nechayev served as a pilot for the Russian charter airline East Union, which focuses on VIP charters as well as aircraft and yacht leasing, from 2008 until 2021.
Data on Russian border crossings indicates that Nechayev made at least 40 flights with billionaire Leonid Mikhelson and his family, according to Shumanov.
These flights were conducted using a Gulfstream business jet with the registration number N650GL, which has been associated with the Novatek group co-owned by Mikhelson.
Shumanov also noted that among the frequent passengers on Nechayev’s flights were Alexander Novak, the former deputy chairman of Novatek and currently Russia’s deputy prime minister, and Denis Khramov, the former Deputy Natural Resources Minister.
For more details, you can read this story in Russian at The Moscow Times’ Russian service.
