The Shin Bet security agency and police announced Monday that they had arrested an Israeli civilian from the northern town of Nof Hagalil. He is suspected of having carried out missions on behalf of Iran, the latest in a series of espionage cases.
The suspect, Artyom Zolotarev, 33, was arrested in November on suspicion of “committing security offenses related to contacts with Iranian intelligence officials and carrying out security missions in Israel under their direction, for profit,” according to the Shin Bet.
The agency said Zolotarev was arrested after making graffiti with numerous anti-government slogans in Nof Hagalil, Haifa, and Migdal Haemek, and after setting fire to a car in Haifa.
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The joint Shin Bet and police investigation revealed that in October, Zolotarev was in contact with an online person using the pseudonym “Eliad”, who suggested that he carry out tasks involving making graffiti against the government to change the civil situation in Israel.
Zolotarev carried out the graffiti missions and filmed his actions, which he sent to his contact. After sending the images to Eliad, Zolotarev erased the graffiti, according to the investigation.
The Shin Bet claims that Zolotarev received $2,800 in cryptocurrency for carrying out the mission.
Zolotarev would later realize that Eliad was an Iranian agent.
The Shin Bet says the suspect figured this out after first refusing to carry out several missions, including taking photos of residential buildings and an electrical transformer, and burning a car, and after seeing news reports on TikTok regarding the arrest of Moti Maman, an Israeli accused of being smuggled into Iran twice, charged with assassinating the prime minister, the defense minister or the head of the Shin Bet, and the arrest of other suspects in espionage cases related to Iran.
After Zolotarev learned that Eliad was an Iranian agent, the suspect was offered to assassinate someone for $125,000 and then be smuggled to Russia or Iran, according to the investigation’s findings . Zolotarev was also asked to buy a weapon to pass on to someone else, but he refused both offers, according to the Shin Bet.
Still according to the Shin Bet, at the request of his Iranian superior, Zolotarev set fire to a car in Haifa in exchange for $2,000.
Eliad later asked Zolotarev to speak to another Iranian agent using the name “Boaz Mar,” and he carried out several other missions in Haifa and Afula, according to the investigation.
Zolotarev painted “Children of Ruhollah” graffiti – referring to Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s former supreme leader – in Haifa and Afula, and set fire to another car in Haifa. He also took a video of the car burning and sent it to Boaz Mar, according to the Shin Bet.
He was rewarded with thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency for these acts, the agency adds.
An indictment was filed against Zolotarev Monday morning in Nazareth District Court on charges of contact with a foreign agent, arson and vandalism.
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