Ukraine Rearrests Alleged Mastermind Of Global Cybercrime Gang
By Christopher Miller
KYIV -- Authorities in Ukraine have rearrested the alleged mastermind of an international cybercrime gang that was busted in international raids more than a year ago.
Russian-born Gennadiy Kapkanov, who is believed to have headed the complex and sophisticated criminal network of computer servers known as Avalanche, was arrested in Kyiv by Ukrainian cyberpolice on February 25, a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry confirmed to RFE/RL.
Artem Shevchenko, the spokesperson, said Kapkanov was found carrying a Ukrainian passport under a pseudonym, a copy of which was provided to RFE/RL.
A laptop, a flash drive, and cash were also seized from the apartment he had rented in the Ukrainian capital, according to an Interior Ministry statement.
A video published by Ukrainian police showed Kapkanov in custody and officers collecting evidence inside the apartment where he was found.
Unlike during his first arrest, Kapkanov did not put up a fight with police, Shevchenko said.
The cybercrime network Avalanche was active for seven years, and it took the efforts of law enforcement agencies from 40 countries to shut it down. That operation, which unfolded on the territories of four countries, took place on November 30, 2016. The FBI and its international partners described the operation as an unprecedented global law enforcement response to cybercrime.
Kapkanov, then 33, was detained in the Ukrainian city of Poltava on the same day following a brief shootout with police.
The following week, however, Kapkanov was released when a local judge said prosecutors had failed to properly file charges. The decision caused a firestorm among law enforcement agencies, and Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko threatened to have the judge removed.
Kapkanov then disappeared. His whereabouts and movements between then and his rearrest remain unknown, but Shevchenko said he is believed to have been in Ukraine the entire time.
Shevchenko said Kapkanov would appear in a Poltava court later on February 26.
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
Three Pussy Riot Members Detained In Crimea
By RFE/RL
Three members of the Russian Pussy Riot punk protest band have been detained in the Russia-annexed Crimea region.
Olga Borisova said that she and another member of the band, Aleksandr Sofeyev, were detained on February 25 when they arrived in the Ukrainian peninsula.
Borisova later said that a third member of the group, Maria Alyokhina, was detained upon her arrival in Crimea on February 26. She said that Alyokhina texted her that she was with the police, after which communication stopped.
Crimean lawyer Emil Kurbedinov said on February 26 that the trio was brought to a medical institution for testing. He could not provide further details.
An RFE/RL correspondent reported later that Borisova was brought to a police station after the test, while Alyokhina was released. Sofeyev's whereabouts remain unknown.
Russia-imposed Crimean authorities have not officially commented on the detentions.
In August, Alyokhina and Borisova were detained and fined after staging a protest near the remote prison in Siberia where Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov is incarcerated.
Sentsov is from Crimea, the Ukrainian region that Russia forcibly seized in March 2014. He is serving a 20-year prison sentence on terror charges that he and supporters say are groundless.
Pussy Riot achieved prominence in 2012 after Alyokhina and fellow Pussy Riot performer Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were convicted of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" for a stunt in which band members burst into Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral and sang a "punk prayer" against then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who was campaigning for his return to the presidency at the time.
Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova were close to the end of their two-year prison sentences when they were freed in December 2013, under an amnesty they dismissed as a propaganda stunt to improve Putin's image ahead of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. They have focused largely on fighting for the rights of prisoners since their release.