Alexander Borisov was sentenced Thursday by a Dutchess County judge who wondered why the 47-year-old Russian turned to robbing banks in the early 1990s, about two years after defecting from the Soviet air force in Afghanistan, according to the Poughkeepsie Journal.

Borisov was sent to prison in 1992 for robbing the First Niagara Bank in Millerton, New York, in December 1991 and then served time in Connecticut for robbing two banks there in January 1992.

He was released from prison in 2007, but two years later was arrested again for robbing the Millerton bank. He pleaded guilty in March to first-degree robbery.