Security News > 2024 > August > US sends cybercriminals back to Russia in prisoner swap that freed WSJ journo, others
At least two Russian cybercriminals are among those being returned to their motherland as part of a multinational prisoner exchange deal announced Thursday.
Videos circulating online today showed Seleznev and other freed Russian prisoners shaking hands with President Vladimir Putin upon disembarking the plane that carried them back to their country.
The other Russian techno-crook going home is Vladislav Klyushin, the Russian owner of security penetration testing firm M-13.
The White House announced the prisoner exchange today but did not immediately respond to The Register's requests to confirm the identity of all Russian nationals being released.
The Biden Administration did identify one Russian who will be sent home - convicted assassin Vadim Krasikov who was held in Germany - but has not detailed the other prisoners being exchanged for three Americans: Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former Marine Paul Whelan, and Alsu Kurmasheva, a dual Russian-American reporter with Radio Free Europe - plus Russian-British green-card holder and Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza.
US President Joe Biden called the deal "a feat of democracy," and said America, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, and Turkey negotiated the release of a total of 16 people from Russia - including seven Russians who had been political prisoners, and five Germans.