Russian university student who was accused of working for Ukrainian hackers charged with treason

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) charged a student from Tomsk, a city in Siberia, with treason. He allegedly worked for Ukrainian hackers, reports RFE/RL’s Siberian service (Sibir.Realii) and Telegram channel Astra.

In October 2023, the programmer was first detained and arrested. According to the investigation, he carried out “cyberattacks of a subversive nature” on Russian information infrastructure targets on orders from Ukrainian special services. The FSB did not provide any other details.

According to Astra, the case was about a student at Tomsk State University of Control Systems and Radioelectronics (TUSUR) by the name of S.V. Israfailov, who reportedly participated in cyberattacks on Tomsk administration resources and the Tomsk Polytechnic University research institute, on behalf of the hacker group Cyber Anarchy Squad.

According to Sibir.Realii, the defendant’s name is Seymour Israfilov and he is 18 years old. He enrolled at TUSUR in the summer of 2023.