He was arrested on January 26, 2015, charged with, and pleading guilty to, spying on the United States for the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).

[12][15] Beginning around March 2012, in dozens of occasions at locations in and around Manhattan and the Bronx, Buryakov began meeting with Sporyshev and Podobnyy for the purpose of exchanging information related to their work as intelligence officers operating within the United States at the direction of the Russian SVR.

[5] They tasked Buryakov with attempting to recruit New York City residents as intelligence sources, as well as gathering information about U.S. sanctions on Russia and U.S. efforts to develop alternative energy resources.

[21] In January 2015, the three Russians were charged with overtly conspiring against the United States and that Buryakov had been an unregistered agent of a foreign government.

[21][24] Later, during October 2016 when the FBI and the Justice Department officials obtained a 90-day warrant for electronic surveillance of Carter Page who had ceased being an adviser to Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) application included Page's relationships with Buryakov, Podobnyy, and Sporyshev as part of the basis for obtaining the warrant.

[25][26] Buryakov's defense, financed by Vnesheconombank, argued that he was protected from the charges by virtue of being an official employee of the Russian government, though this argument was rejected by Judge Richard M.