Sergei Mikhailov was arrested and accused of treason

Jan 26, 2017 22:51 GMT  ·  By

Speculations are running high in regards to Sergei Mikhailov, FSB agent that was arrested alongside Kaspersky cybersecurity analyst ​Ruslan Stoyanov back in December in Russia and accused of treason, as recent reports indicate he was an Anonymous member.

The Moscow Times cites pro-Kremlin television network Tsargrad TV saying that Mikhailov could very well be a member of Anonymous International, an organization notorious over the past few years for leaking private emails of public figures with ties to Putin and those surrounding him.

Truth or manipulation?

Whether Mikhailov was or was not a member of the Anonymous group and a powerful hacker in his own right remains unknown, mostly because Tsargrad TV isn’t exactly the most reliable source. Running news about conspiracy theories and other outlandish reports doesn’t give its coverage of the topic much credibility.

It does show, however, a well-put effort to discredit the Anonymous group and Mikhailov, going as far as to say the reason he has been accused of treason is that he had plans to use his IT knowledge to influence Russian election results. The Kremlin-friendly network goes as far as pointing the finger towards the CIA, which might be behind Anonymous International in the first place.

Anonymous International has been leaking documents for years, including those belonging to Russian politicians, something that hasn’t been appreciated at the top of the local food chain. Even Putin has been a target of the hacker group.

A fight against Anonymous

Discrediting Anonymous isn’t anything new either, and it’s not likely to stop anytime soon.

As a reminder, the Kaspersky analyst was arrested in December alongside a former FSB officer and both were accused of treason. News of their arrest only reached news outlets yesterday, many weeks later, without much official information to hang on to, which only gave room to rampant speculations regarding their situation.

Update: The article has been edited to fix Sergei Mikhailov's position as an FSB agent, not Kaspersky specialist.