US-Russian national sentenced for attempting to breach US export controls

22 January 2026

The US District Court for the Southern District of Georgia has sentenced Sergey Nechaev to 41 months imprisonment for his role in attempting to illegally export aircraft to Russia in breach of the US Export Control Reform Act.

Mr Nechaev was arrested in December 2024 and pleaded guilty in September 2025 to attempting to export controlled goods without a license, smuggling goods contrary to US law, and submitting false export information.

Between September 2022 and March 2023, Mr Nechaev attempted to smuggle two Cessna aircraft from the US to Russia by transshipping them through Armenia. The end-user was a purported Russian flight school. Mr Nechaev did not obtain the required licence or authorisation from the US Department of Commerce and falsely represented the end user and destination were in Armenia.

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