Hacker talks about links with Russian spy agency

MOSCOW – A member of a Russian hacking group involved in blackmailing top officials says that it had contacts with Russia’s top domestic security agency.

Alexander Glazastikov said in an interview with independent Dozhd television aired Thursday that the Federal Security Service, or FSB, had offered the Shaltai Boltai (Humpty Dumpty) group to work under its control. The group has been publishing letters and documents stolen from Russian officials.

Glazastikov, who spoke to Dozhd in Tallinn, Estonia, where he’s seeking political asylum, said the group’s leader, Vladimir Anikeyev, told him the FSB had offered him a deal: The hackers would show the spy agency their publications in advance, in exchange for protection.

Anikeyev and two other members of the hacking group have been in custody in Russia since their arrest last fall.