According to the Russian media themselves, after the US stopped cooperating with Russia, it became even more difficult for the investigation to gather evidence. Therefore, hackers have nothing to blame. However, they simply cannot be released. They could pose a danger to Ukraine.

REvil: who are they

• REvil hackers would run an encrypted virus of the same name that they used and leased to other criminals.
• Among the group’s targets was Apple, which stole future product plans during the attack and demanded a $50 million ransom under threat of disclosure. Also in 2019 they had dozens of Texas officials on their hands, JBS SA, the world’s largest meat producer, Kaseya, an IT company that creates enterprise software – it smashed one and a half thousand companies in dozens of countries – and others were affected.
• The hacker team was closely associated with Russia due to the similarity of methods and codes with other Russian hijackers. This link was also traced when the group’s activities changed after the American president’s meeting with the Russian dictator.

Fall REvil

• In the fall of 2021, Americans targeted potential gang members, including those around their leaders. This was made possible by the successful hacking of the servers of the Russian language hackers REvil.
• After a few days, REvil-related sites on the darknet stopped opening.
• In November 2021, the US imposed sanctions on Russian Polyanin and Ukrainian Vasynsky, believed to be involved in the hacking group REvil. The Russian side was informed about the alleged leader of the gang, Dmitry Puzyrevsky, and demanded his “immediate arrest”.
• However, Russian security forces did so only on January 15, 2022, as they gathered evidence of Puzyrevsky’s involvement.
• 14 other people were detained with him that day. The FSB has announced that the hacking group REvil has been liquidated.

what now

Criminal prosecution of members of the hacker group REvil has reached a stalemate, according to media reports. They cannot be charged, as American services have stopped providing information about hacking to Russia. For this reason, some suspects detained in January 2022 were never questioned.

Oleg Khramov, Russia’s deputy chief of security, said in early April that the investigation into the activities of alleged REevil members was effectively suspended “due to the fault of former Russian Security Council partners”. According to Khramov, the Americans did not send any additional materials after the arrest of the hackers and did not even confirm the harm of attacks and extortions, which in court are important for determining the degree of guilt and punishment.

In addition, they have informed us that they have withdrawn from the negotiation process unilaterally and that they have closed the communication channel,
– Adds Oleg Khramov.

As a result, the researchers blamed only eight REvil participants.

REvil and Ukraine

The current situation could take an unpleasant turn for Ukraine. The hackers’ lawyers hope they can sign an agreement with the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia in exchange for freedom to work against Ukraine.

The unique experience of the former defendants will probably be useful to the Russian special services to fight the Ukrainian hackers, which have recently intensified.
– quotes the words of the defense of the publication.

There have been no high-profile attacks on Russian companies by REvil. At least there is no information about it in the media. The attack on Kaseya certainly did not affect any business of the invaders. Thus, it is likely that Russia will forgive the attacks on the “enemy” America and involve its former gang members in the war against Ukraine.