Slashdot Mirror
Maldives Denies Russian Claims That Secret Service Kidnapped a Politician's Son
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.
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.
Interpol Red Notices are routinely used by oppressive regimes to harass political opponents abroad. They're not always effective; governments seem to be free to ignore these things if it appears to be politically motivated.
It's not a good look for the Russians to be so cheeky as to protest a common thief getting busted like this. I should hope that if somebody in (say) the UK ripped off a few thousand Russian pensioners over the internet, that the Russians could have him handed over (and thrown in Russian PMITA prison) quickly. Our Russian friends seem to have forgotten the notions of reciprocity.
But there are no credible reports of the US allowing criminals to just wantonly defraud Russian and Chinese citizens. While all of our governments spy on each other (and each other's economies), the US at least tends to take a dim view toward its citizens committing criminal acts against foreigners.
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.
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.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carding
To be honest, I'm surprised that's considered illegal.
Carding
It's basically verifying the validity of stolen or generated card numbers.
... or any nation friendly with Putin.
So they can't go to Syria or Belarus. That doesn't seem like a big limitation.