Russian hacker appeared before a US court

Vladimir Drinkman (left) in court / TASS / EPA / JERRY LAMPEN

In New York today , the first meeting was held with the participation of Russian Vladimir Drinkman. He is accused of organizing hacking activities, which led to the largest theft of bank cards for all time. As a result of the activity of a group of five hackers (four Russians and one citizen of Ukraine), information was stolen from about 160 million bank cards. The damage is estimated at $ 300 million.

In a US court, Vladimir faces up to 30 years in prison. He was recently extradited to the United States from the Netherlands, where he was arrested in 2013 at the request of the United States. Then, extraditions were also sought in Russia - Vladimir had a daughter and an ex-wife here. He himself also asked to extradite him to Russia. However, naturally, in the Netherlands they preferred to transfer it to the American judicial authorities . Vladimir does not recognize his guilt.

Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law, said : “Washington continues the vicious practice of extraterritorial application of American laws against citizens of the Russian Federation, violating the rules of the Russian-American treaty, bypassing the 1999 Russian-American treaty on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters. " And this, in turn, according to him, “causes additional serious damage to Russian-American relations that are already going through difficult times.”