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Russian Snared By The FBI Sentenced To 3 Years
Mark Cantrell writes "Vasiliy Gorshkov, one of two Russian crackers who were arrested in November 2000 after the FBI broke into their computer systems were sentenced Friday. Taking pity on Gorshkov's family, they sentenced Gorshkov to 3 years in prison and a fine of nearly $700,000 USD. They also mention how a U.S. judge found that the FBI wasn't breaking any laws in breaking into a Russian computer system, despite the fact that they were breaking a Russian law doing so. So apparently, it's ok for Americans to break Russian law if they're in the U.S., but not ok for Russians to break U.S. law, even while in Russia."
Why has Russia been so subdued in the media lately? Is it really because they have been broken by the US, or is something deeper going on?
US policy makers know some answers, but aren't talking. People in various circles of thought (re: conspiracy) know things, but don't have proof, per se.
This whole Iraq issue is a big smokescreen. Russia is no longer important. The real issue the American public should be scared of is the recent EU submission by the US, that will not only give more power to the US, but in the long run, make it near to impossible for other countries to counter.
Scary.
user@host$ diff
How did the FBI catch this guy? I mean, actually catch him? Extradition? If so, then the Russian government agreed to allow him to be tried in the US.
If the Russian government felt that the FBI's crimes weren't very much of a big deal.
Besides Russia isn't exactly a bastion of civil liberties anyway, I'm willing to bet that Russian law enforcement breaks their own laws all the time.
What the FBI did may have been technicaly illigal, but you have to consider motives and damage as well. Buzz Aldrin didn't get prosicuted when he punched that moon-hoax guy in the face and he shouldn't have been.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Sometimes things aren't so "the-USA-is-really-bad" as Slashdot says they are (and sometimes they are, and sometimes they're probably worse).
Of course, if we use Law and Order as our legal source (and, though IANAL, I've watched a lot of L&O), then Jack McCoy would say that we have a responsibility to prosecute criminals when their own countries won't, and that as long as an element of the crime was taking place within jurisdiction of the court, the court should have prosecutorial powers. But in the episode where Jack and Carmichael were outside of the Supreme Court and the decision comes out, after attempting to prosecute a foreign diplomat for murder, they (frustratingly) don't tell us what the decision is. D'oh!
-- Erich
Slashdot reader since 1997
Can't compare these jokers to Dmitri Skylarov. Skylarov was doing something that's allowed by Russian law, and frankly shouldn't be illegal in America. These jokers were running credit card scams which aren't allowed at all, no matter where you go.
The Russians objected to the FBI's means of gathering the evidence, not to the prosecution for the crimes themselves. The FBI "hacked" the computers by luring the Russians to the USA under the guise of a job interview, and installing keylogging software on their PC's as they were invited to hack a virtual network that the FBI set up. Using the keylogging software, the FBI was able to get their passwords, and use it to remotely access their computers in Russia. Using this evidence, they were extradited to the USA for prosecution.
What they did could be called Entrapment, and it could be called Espionage. But I still have to laugh that the l337 h4xx0rz from Russia were dumb enough to allow it to happen. They were running unsecured boxes at home, and for some unearthly reason decided to remotely access those boxes while partaking in an experiment to hack a virtual network in Seattle. Idiots. They get no sympathy at all from me.
If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
he USA trying to push it's own agenda on the world, enforcing their laws and beliefs on other countries and cultures, makes me sick. If there is any hope for the USA or the rest of the world, America must be restrained from trying to enforce its own laws in other countries. Trade embargoes are needed against the USA for such disgusting practices.
:/
With previous presidencies there has been the same thing happening, but never to the scale that the Bush administration is trying to go to. The best comparison I have is of a teenage brat who hassed pissed everyone off and then wonders why nobody supports him when he goes an picks on the next guy, whether or not this time he may or may not be in the right. Until the USA can start acting a team player, it is going to feel that it lacts respect - this goes to any country acting in the same manner.
There are countries around the world, that still 'interfere' with the foreign policy of other countries. But at the same the methods appear to be more to keep things calm, than to fluff everyone's feathers and to risk a bigger problem down the road. Sure Russia and Chechnia probably is just as a bad, but not everything fits into a generalisation
BTW In the case of the story, it would probably have been wiser for the Russians to charge these guys, if they were resident on Russian soil. It does happen in the international political arena that if a crime is judged extreme enough that criminals can be handed over to the other country. Ironically, they will probably get better treatement in a US jail that in one in Russia.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Something's gone wrong with our society. Rule of law vs political influence and money. I'm still coming to grips with the insurance companies and radar gun manufacturers using law enforcement as profit centers.
Life for The average guy is really starting to be faced with the outcomes of all the various dirty tricks that are shaping society. Still flooding the country with the H1B workers despite so many of us being unable to find work.
There's some cold hearted motherfuckers in this world, how have they gained so much control over our lives?
So apparently, it's ok for Americans to break Russian law if they're in the U.S., but not ok for Russians to break U.S. law, even while in Russia
Yep. There's no American law against breaking Russian laws. In fact, there's no American law against violating non-American citizens rights that Americans would be guaranteed in the constitution. If you're not an American citizen and you are arrested in the United States, you aren't guaranteed a jury of your peers, etc. Usually the punishment is extradition, but when no country will take you back, you get to rot in American prison without trial for the rest of your life. (Sadly, 60 minutes doesn't post old stories on the internet, so I can't put up a link for more information.)
In any case, war changes the rules. IMO almost any country in the world (even Stalin's USSR!) would have been justified in declaring war on Germany because of the Holocaust alone, and once war is declared, invasion and other violations of national sovereignty are pretty much part of the game. But we're not at war with Russia -- or did I miss something?
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.