Kaspersky Lab treason suspect is hospitalized in critical condition after suffering pulmonary embolism in jail
Ruslan Stoyanov, the former Kaspersky Lab expert now on trial for treason, was recently rushed to the hospital in critical condition, after suffering a pulmonary embolism on October 1, his lawyer told the independent television network Dozhd. According to Inga Lebedeva, her client was hospitalized after repeatedly losing consciousness.
The case against Stoyanov is classified, but he is allegedly charged with passing secret intelligence to the FBI about Russian hackers. Days before Lebedeva revealed that Stoyanov has been in the hospital, the newspapers Kommersant and Novaya Gazeta reported that he and three accomplices, led by former FSB Information Security Center agent Sergey Mikhailov, may have been promised $10 million in exchange for data that led to the unmasking of Russian hackers, potentially including the GRU’s “Fancy Bear” operation, which stole internal records from the Democratic National Convention in the United States.
The allegations about a $10-million paycheck have raised some eyebrows. American cyber-crime journalist Brian Krebs, for example, has suggested that the rumor is a fabrication planted by Pavel Vrublevsky, a Russian businessman with notorious ties to hackers, who spent 18 months in prison thanks to investigative work by Mikhailov’s FSB unit.
Stoyanov has been jailed in Moscow since his arrest in December 2016. His lawyer says he’s currently recovering in a private room, guarded by police officers, after spending several days in critical condition. Lebedeva says the hospital conditions are acceptable, but she worries that Stoyanov will be returned to jail prematurely, where medical staff have allegedly neglected his needs, for example by refusing to perform an ultrasound examination, even after he lost consciousness in May.
Lebedeva also complained that prison officials appear to be blocking Stoyanov’s personal mail, holding letters from his friends and family for months at a time.