14 DAY TRIAL // New reports indicate that the treason charges brought against Ruslan Stoyanov, head of the computer incidents investigation team at Kaspersky Lab, as well as two other officers of the Federal Security Service in Russia, are connected to allegations made by a local businessman some seven years ago.
Reuters reports that sources connected with the investigation, as well as Pavel Vrublevsky, the businessman in question, said the Kaspersky expert and the other two state security officers are suspected of passing secrets to U.S. firm Verisign, as well as other unidentified American companies. The information eventually ended with US intelligence agencies looking to gather more info on Russia.
It seems that the investigation into the actions of the three accused individuals is connected to accusations made in 2010 by Russian businessman Pavel Vrublevsky, founder of ChronoPay, an online payment company. He claims he recently learned that the arrests were a response to his allegations that Stoyanov and Mikhailov were passing secrets to American firms.
Two turns to three
Originally, it was reported that Stoyanov and FSB officer Sergei Mikhailov were the only ones arrested for treason back in December. The list has now expanded to include another FSB agent Dmitry Dokuchayev.
No public information has been released on these arrests, but there has been a chilling of the relations between researchers from Russia and US when it comes to fighting against cyber crimes.
On the other side of the pond, US firms are denying having any connection to this case. "Nothing like the arrangement as described by Pavel Vrublevsky ever took place," said Kimberly Zenz, a former analyst at Verisign.
It seems a bit weird that the trio was arrested only last December when the allegations were made back in 2010. On the other hand, it mixes well with the statement issued by Kaspersky, which claimed that the charges against Stoyanov related to a period before he joined the company in 2012.