It’s rare for Russian criminal hackers to land in U.S. prisons and even rarer for them to get out early. But two of the eight Russians released in Thursday’s prisoner swap with the U.S. are seasoned cybercriminals.
The decision to release the Russians highlights the steep price the U.S. was willing to pay to free political prisoners held by the Kremlin, like Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. It is believed to be the first time the U.S. has released international hackers in a prisoner exchange, according to cybercrime experts and a review conducted by NBC News.
The two convicted Russian hackers, Vladislav Klyushin and Roman Seleznev, are in their early 40s. Klyushin, arrested in 2021, was one of five Russian men accused of an elaborate scheme to hack U.S. companies to learn about earnings reports to beat the stock market. Seleznev was one of history’s most notorious carders — criminals who hack, trade and use stolen credit cards — before his arrest in 2014.
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