Russia accused the United States on Tuesday of violating a bilateral treaty and “kidnapping” a Russian charged with hacking into U.S. retailers’ computer systems to steal credit card data, reuters.com reports.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said on Monday the Secret Service had arrested Roman Valerevich Seleznyov, 30, on July 5 for actions carried out from 2009 to 2011.
State Duma member representing the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) Valery Seleznyov has confirmed his son Roman had been detained by US secret service in the Maldives.
“I am now in negotiations with the Russian Foreign Ministry. Kidnapping is a crime,” he told ITAR-TASS on Tuesday. “The country must protect its citizens, and Roman should go back to Russia.”
“We consider this as the latest unfriendly move from Washington,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website.
“This is not the first time the U.S. side, ignoring a bilateral treaty … on mutual assistance in criminal matters, has gone ahead with what amounts to the kidnapping of a Russian citizen.”
Roman Seleznyov was indicted in Washington state in March 2011 on charges including bank fraud, causing damage to a protected computer, obtaining information from a protected computer and aggravated identity theft, the U.S. agency said in a statement.
The indictment said Seleznyov hacked into websites ranging from those run by the Phoenix Zoo, a branch of Schlotzsky’s Deli and many other small restaurants and entertainment venues around the country.
Relations between Russia and the United States are at a low ebb in Vladimir Putin’s third term as president, with the former Cold War enemies divided over the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine as well as on human rights, democracy and defense matters.
