Translated material
A Russian programmer was detained in Spain at the request of the United States
The Spanish police detained, at the request of American law enforcement agencies, a programmer from Russia, Petr Levashov. This was reported to RT by Levashova's wife Maria.
The Russian, she said, was detained in Barcelona, where he was vacationing with his family. During the arrest, the police confiscated all electronic devices from the Levashov family living in St. Petersburg.
The police, according to Levashov's wife, said that he was suspected of involvement in hacker attacks, in particular, those related to interference in US elections.
Levashov was taken into custody. On Monday, April 10, the Russian consul is to visit him.
The Russian Embassy confirmed to TASS that the Russian was detained on suspicion of hacking at the request of the United States.
Spanish law enforcement officials have not yet commented on the detention of the Russian.
The name of Petr Levashov was mentioned in the investigation into the creation of the Waledac and Kelihos botnets. It has been suggested that Levashov is hiding under the nickname Peter Severa and is a moderator of the Spamdot website.
“At night, a crowd of police broke into our apartment, breaking the door. They put us all on the floor - and all this in front of a four-year-old child. They didn’t answer my questions, they locked me with the child and my girlfriend in a room, kept me there for two hours and didn’t let me talk to my husband,” says the detainee’s wife.
- In January, RT reported on the detention of Stanislav Lisov, a Russian programmer from Taganrog, in Barcelona. He was also taken into custody at the request of the FBI and Interpol while on holiday with his family in Spain.
- The US authorities officially accused the Russian Federation of organizing hacker attacks in order to influence the course of the presidential election. According to the White House, the hackers carried out the attacks on the instructions of the GRU of the Ministry of Defense. The Russian side denies these accusations.
- Due to allegations of hacker attacks, the United States imposed sanctions on Russia in late 2016 and expelled 35 Russian diplomats from the country.