US indict Russian spies for international hacking

The US Department of Justice has indicted six Russian military intelligence agents accusing them of various hacks against the French presidential elections, the South Korean Winter Olympics, the British authorities investigating the poisoning of former Russian spy Serghiei Skripal and the Ukrainian parliament. The New York Times writes it. According to investigators, the suspects belong to the 74455 unit of the GRU, known as Fancy Bear, the same that interfered in the 2016 US presidential election by stealing emails from the dem. One of the suspects, Anatoliy Kovalev, was convicted two years ago for his alleged role in interfering with the American vote in 2016. It is unclear whether the indicted persons will be prosecuted: Moscow appears unlikely to hand them over to the United States. But those concerned could be arrested if they enter a country willing to extradite them. As for the 2017 French presidential elections, hackers released stolen documents just as the vote began, to harm Emmanuel Macron in his duel against Marine Le Pen, the far-right candidate backed by Moscow. But, unlike what happened in the American elections, authentic documents were mixed with manipulated material in the French operation. US officials have warned that Russia could repeat this tactic in the upcoming US presidential elections