Speaking at a meeting of the US Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, James Komi, director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, promised to "grab and close in prison" alleged Russian hackers if they can be obtained outside Russia. As RIA Novosti writes, Komi complained to the Senate about the intractability of the Russian authorities in extraditing criminals. These people love to travel, so we can make them pay for this behavior in many ways, including imprisoning them, the FBI director said..
According to the director of the FBI, Yahoo's mail servers were hacked by joint Russian secret services and hackers. He said that Russian government organizations have links to criminals, and Yahoo's hacking is an example of how some of the best criminal figures and intelligence services work together. At the same time, Komi did not provide any evidence of his assumptions.
About two major hacking accounts Yahoo has become known in the past year. This information led to a significant, by $ 350 million, reduction in the price of the transaction for the sale of Yahoo's American Verizon.
The US has brought charges against a number of alleged hackers from Russia, arrested in third countries. In April, 27 years in prison in the US, a Russian citizen Roman Seleznev on charges of cyber-fraud. At the moment waiting for a decision on the extradition from Spain to the US programmer Peter Levashov. In 2016, a Norwegian citizen, Mark Vartanyan, was extradited from Norway to the US under similar charges. On charges of the FBI In Thailand, a Russian citizen Dmitry Ukrainsky was arrested. In 2014, Vadim Polyakov was extradited from Spain to the United States. Also in the US, charges are brought against the FSB officer Dmitry Dokuchaev and his alleged colleague Yegor Sushchina, as well as the hackers Alexei Belan and Karim Baratov, the latter is a citizen of Kazakhstan. The US Justice Department assumes that Dokuchaev and Sushchin provided protection, directed and paid for the collection of information by hackers through classified programs in the United States and beyond.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly warned Russian citizens that they should travel with caution abroad if there is reason to suspect that they have claims from US intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies. "Hunting" on Russian citizens in third countries by US services in the Foreign Ministry is considered unacceptable.
Previously, the US accused Russia of involvement in breaking into the databases of the Democratic Party of the United States and the transfer of information to the WikiLeaks resource in 2016. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange denied any connection between the site and Russia.
The Russian authorities have also repeatedly denied these accusations. The results of the official investigation of this incident by US authorities have not yet been made public. However, at the end of December last year, the US President Barack Obama's administration imposed sanctions against nine Russian institutions, companies and individuals, including the GRU and the FSB, for "interference in the elections" and "pressure on American diplomats" working in Russia.