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Maldives Denies Russian Claims That Secret Service Kidnapped a Politician's Son

Posted by timothy on from the 30-year-old-napping-is-totally-different dept.

Rei (128717) writes As was previously reported here, the Russian government has accused the U.S. Secret Service of kidnapping the son of ultranationalist LDPR MP Valery Seleznev in the Maldives. The son, Roman Seleznev, stands accused of running one of the world's largest carding operations, with others charged in the affair having already been convicted; however, Roman had until recently been considered out of reach in Russia. Now the Maldives has struck back against these claims, insisting that they arrested him on an Interpol Red Notice and transferred him to the US, as they are legally required as an Interpol member state to do. "No outsider came here to conduct an operation," president Abdulla Yameen stated. "No officials from another country can come here to arrest anyone. The government has the necessary documentation to prove it." Note: the Slashdot post linked didn't include the accusations of kidnapping, but the Krebs On Security link above mentions these claims.

8 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. Consipricy nuts, go! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let me guess. All of you who claimed the US overstepped it's bounds in the previous Slashdot article will now claim that the Maldives is lying to cover for the US. Rather than simply just admit your knee jerk reaction was wrong.

    1. Re:Consipricy nuts, go! by timrod · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Actually, the only question I have is why the US didn't just say that Maldives law enforcement was responsible for the arrest in the first place. It could've been spun as good PR for both countries - "Cooperation Between US, Maldives Law Enforcement Leads to Arrest of Card Hacker" or somesuch. That would've quelled any questions about who was responsible for the arrest in the first place as well.

    2. Re:Consipricy nuts, go! by jedidiah · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Objection: relevance.

      These other things are not the topic of discussion. They are just red herrings to distract from the fact that the US appears to have acted in a civilized manner this time.

      Civilized behavior should not be swept under the rug because you have a hate-on for some particular country. Your nonsense undermines the positive reinforcement that encourages good behavior and discourages bad behavior.

      Doesn't matter if it's the US or Hezbollah.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    3. Re:Consipricy nuts, go! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Maybe because it wasn't the place of the US law enforcement organizations to discuss or even know what happened before the prisoner was handed over. I doubt they were completely unaware, but the earlier article mentions him being officially arrested at a court hearing in Guam, and makes no mention of the events leading up to that point.
      It is possible that the US law enforcement agencies did not want to say who captured him or how just on the off chance that the Maldives would've preferred to remain as close to anonymous as possible in the light of what will be mentioned in the actual trial.

    4. Re:Consipricy nuts, go! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The first sentence of the press release reads thusly:
      On July 5, 2014 the U.S. Secret Service arrested Roman Valerevich Seleznev.

      This turns out to be a lie since it is now claimed that the Maldives arrested Seleznev and then turned him over to the Secret Service.

    5. Re:Consipricy nuts, go! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You have the sequence out of order. The US issued warrants for this guy back in 2012.

      If you're going to throw around ad hominem attacks coupled with suppositions, you should attack the the Russian leader for hating the Ukraine for its perceived turn towards the power that has warrants out for his son.

  2. I'm surprised the Russians would complain too much by swb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Since it would seem to only lead to more focus on the mafia-like nature of the Russian government and the shadowy links between Russian government, intelligence and organized crime.

    I'm sure the US-haters and the Russian propagandists will begin their usual moral equivocation, NSA, CIA, banking, etc.

  3. Blurring lines between criminality and politics. by linearz69 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Russians have been protecting a suspected criminal fraudster who happens to be the son of a government official. These suspicions aren't thin. Seleznev has even admitted to his crimes. If its state sponsored thuggery, then the state is Russia, not US. Roman Seleznev is just another cyber criminal who was dumb enough to step outside of Mother Russia long enough to get caught.

    If this had been Snowden, then I think the argument for political motivation is real. But Snowden, his existence in Russian exile, gives Russia some leverage to make claim of political arrest and state overreach. The US government has put itself in a position where it looks bad even when it is doing something good.