Translated material
Businessman Klyushin may become a source of secret information about GRU operations for the United States - Bloomberg
Businessman Vladislav Klyushin, extradited from Switzerland to the United States and accused of insider trading, could be a useful source of classified information for the US authorities - not only on election interference, but also on other topics, Bloomberg writes, citing sources familiar with the situation in Russian intelligence . .
According to them, if Klyushin cooperates with the investigation, the United States can get a more complete picture of interference in the 2016 presidential election than before. Klyushin, according to Russian intelligence, has access to documents relating to the hacking of the servers of the US Democratic Party in 2016, Bloomberg sources in Moscow, close to the Kremlin and special services, say. These documents, they say, show that the break-in was carried out by a GRU hacker group called Fancy Bear or APT28.
In addition to information about the hacking of the servers of the Democratic Party, Klyushin also has secret records of other GRU operations abroad, three Bloomberg sources say. Klyushin's extradition to the United States is "a serious intelligence blow to the Kremlin," the interlocutors of the publication emphasize.
Klyushin's lawyer in Switzerland, Oliver Sirik, told Bloomberg that he has no information about the documents that his client has, and whether they are available at all. The lawyer noted that the US authorities are prosecuting the businessman precisely because, in their opinion, he has data on interference in the 2016 elections, which he can provide in order to avoid a long prison term on charges of insider trading. Klyushin pleads not guilty to either insider trading or "hypothetical election interference," Sirik said.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not respond to Bloomberg's request for comment. The Russian Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the publication.
- Klyushin is the founder and owner of the M13 IT company, which monitors the media and social networks (Katyusha system) in the interests of the presidential administration, government and other Russian government agencies.
- Klyushin was extradited from Switzerland to the United States in mid-December. Less than a week later, he was accused of insider trading. Ivan Yermakov also appears in the case, who had previously been on the list of those accused of hacking the servers of the US Democratic Party. Bloomberg writes that Ermakov was a top manager of Klyushin M13.
- According to Bloomberg , the United States received data about Klyushin's connection with the "attack on the US elections" from the founder of the Russian cybersecurity company Group-IB, Ilya Sachkov. Now Sachkov is in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center in the case of treason.