Thread by @ClimateAudit

1/ nobody seems to have paid much attention to Russian news articles on cybercrime. if Mueller indictment against GRU officers proceeded to trial, most obvious defence is that Russian hacker, Konstantin Kozlovsky (of Lurk gang) already confessed to hack
thebell.io/jailed-russian…

2/ earlier this year (then unaware of Russian news articles), I had pointed out a curious infrastructure linkage between APT28 (X-Agent using hackers) and Lurk banking gang. So arrest of Lurk member for hack not surprising to me.
climateaudit.org/2018/03/11/arr…

3/ Koslovsky claimed that he was directed by two senior FSB officials, Dmitri Dokuchaev and Sergey Mikhailov, both of whom have been arrested, together with Ruslan Stoyanov of Kaspersky - who, only a few months earlier, was praised for breaking Lurk gang thebell.io/ya-byl-zaverbo…

4/ despite Crowdstrike assertion that both GRU and FSB had hacked DNC, Obama only sanctioned GRU and Mueller similarly only indicted GRU. It appears that the arrested FSB officers may have been sources for FBI accusations.

5/ there are also stories in Russian press that Dokuchaev and Mikhailov had been secretly running Shaltai-Boltai hacking group, which extorted money from prominent hackees.
gosint.wordpress.com/2017/02/07/who…

6/ apparently, in a Manafort-style police raid on Mikhailov's home, police discovered $12 million in cash
en.crimerussia.com/gromkie-dela/1…

7/ making matters even more intriguing, Mikhailov's background doesn't appear to have checked out, leading to speculation that he was a long-term mole.
gosint.wordpress.com/2017/05/04/rus…

8/ it gets stranger: Russian security sources said that "Mikhailov was originally recruited by the Americans"
gosint.wordpress.com/2017/05/04/rus…

9/ in other words, the (or a) opposing theory to GRU is that back by Lurk banking gang's Koslovsky, was directed by FSB officers Dokuchaev and Mikhailov, with Mikhailov in turn working for Brennan's CIA. Makes LeCarre seem simplistic. Too bad it won't go to court.

10/ @with_integrity alertly considered Koslovsky story last year g-2.space/kov/ and was skeptical, noting, in particular, that Koslovsky was arrested on May 16, 2016 - BEFORE exfiltration of DNC emails.

11/ I don't have any opinion on validity or non-validity of substance of these stories. Only that they would be a fascinating The Other Dude Did It defence if it proceeded to trial.