... AND ISIS
Terror sniper from Brooklyn caught, faces US trial
“We will f--king kill you,” longtime Brooklyn resident Ruslan Maratovich Asainov allegedly bragged to a friend about his life as a sniper in ISIS. Caught in Syria, he was brought before a New York judge yesterday.
A longtime Brooklyn resident who was born in Kazakhstan deserted America to join ISIS in Syria and Iraq — where he became a skilled sniper and rose to the rank of “emir,” federal officials charged Friday.
Ruslan Maratovich Asainov, 42, was charged on Friday in Brooklyn federal court with aiding the terrorist group by doing everything from fighting for them to training them to recruiting people to work in their p.r. department.
“He’s a real bad guy,” a law-enforcement source told The Post. “He trained snipers to kill Americans.”
The evidence against the former Bensonhurst resident includes a trove of incriminating — and sometimes threatening — text messages he sent to people, including a confidential informant working with the NYPD.
“You will be f- -king scared for the rest of your life,” he seethed in one text sent to an unidentified recipient in January 2015, a year into his move to Syria, according to court papers.
“We will get you. We will f- -king kill you,” the text read. “You heard of ISIS. We will get you. You need to obey. You need to be punished you f- -king [redacted]. We will find you and teach you how to behave.”
Asainov is “an ISIS warrior,” Assistant US Attorney Saritha Komatireddy told Magistrate Judge Steven Gold at a Friday hearing during which he was ordered held without bail.
He was hit with one count of providing material assistance to a terrorist group, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.
“The defendant, a naturalized US citizen residing in Brooklyn, turned his back on the country that took him in and joined ISIS, serving its violent ends in Syria and attempting to recruit others to its cause,” said Brooklyn US Attorney Richard P. Donoghue.
As an active jihadist who for six years wielded high-powered rifles in battle, Asainov still found time to be a prolific texter, court papers say.
He allegedly sent messages to at least two people — one of them an NYPD informant posing as a prospective recruit.
“Even grandmothers are coming,” Asainov texted in August 2014 as he encouraged the informant to bring his family over to join ISIS, court papers allege.
Asainov promised a job in the ISIS media operations, plus housing, food and a $50 monthly stipend, court papers allege.
In another text, Asainov boasted, “We are the worst terrorist organization in the world that has ever existed.”
In March 2015, Asainov messaged the informant asking for $2,800, which he hoped to use to buy a rifle scope, court papers say. The informant did not send the money.
Still, a month later Asainov sent a battlefield selfie from Syria. In it, he wears combat fatigues and holds an assault rifle with a scope.
“Didn’t mean to do show off,” he texted in broken English, referring to the photos. “Cause here is just normal. But for you its motivation.”
Federal prosecutors say Asainov was born in Kazakhstan but became a naturalized US citizen living in Brooklyn from 1998 to 2013.
In December 2013, he left Brooklyn, taking a Christmas Eve red-eye flight alone to Istanbul.
Former neighbors in Bensonhurst said Asainov had lived there with his then-wife and their baby daughter.
“They were a nice married couple,” former neighbor Albina Veribrus, 57, told The Post.
“She got pregnant. I was very happy for her. They had a baby girl. She was adorable.”
“She was very nice, a typical American girl,” Veribrus said of Asainov’s wife, Alexandra.
“She worked in retail. He was polite but aloof. At first, he was normal, but then he grew a beard. She said they were arguing before, he was drinking, then she said he stopped and everything was good between them.”
Another former neighbor said the wife moved to England.
In court Friday, Asainov repeatedly answered the judge’s questions with only silent nods before being reminded that he had to speak his answers.
His lawyer, Susan Kellman, later explained his reticence.
“He answers to a higher authority,” she said after court. “He says his ruler is Allah.”