Russia warns U.S.: ‘Stop hunting’ citizens

Suspected hacker caught in Spain, extradited to USA

The Russian Foreign Ministry demanded Thursday that the United States “stop hunting down our citizens around the globe.”

The strongly worded statement came one week after the United States secured the extradition of a suspected Russian botnet hacker from Spain.

“The number of Russians arrested in other countries at the request of the U.S. continues to increase,” said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharo- va, according to the MFA Twitter account. “There were 11 such cases in 2017.”

Zakharova singled out the case of Peter Levashov, who was detained in Spain in April 2017 on federal charges of Internet scamming. He was extradited to the USA last week to face the charges.

U.S. prosecutors charged that Levashov, 37, operated the Kelihos botnet, a network of more than 100,000 infected devices used by cyber criminals to spread viruses, ransomware, phishing emails and other spam.

The charges could carry a prison sentence of up to 52 years if Levashov is convicted.

Although Russian media have tied him to efforts to influence U.S. elections, the federal indictment does not include any election-related charges.

Levashov, who denied the charges, was scheduled to appear in court Friday in Bridgeport, Conn. He faces federal civil charges in Alaska in connection with the Kelihos botnet, The Hart

ford Courant reported. Levashov, who fought the extradition, told Spain’s High Court he worked for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party for the past 10 years, Russia’s RIA news agency reported.

Zakharova said Levashov complained about his detention conditions. “We regard this as an attempt to pressure the Russian citizen into making him more compliant,” she said.