The United States has thanked the Czech Republic for its help in extraditing an alleged Russian hacker, Yevgeny Nikulin, who was wanted in connection with breaking into the networks of major U.S. technology firms. The networks he is accused of compromising include LinkedIn and Dropbox. Having arrested Nikulin in 2016, the decision to send him to the U.S. was taken recently by the Czech Minister of Justice, who had to fend off pressure from Russia to send him home on charges of the theft of around $2,000.
Russia has expressed outrage over the decision, warning that it would damage bilateral relations between the two countries.”We are disappointed that instead of taking legal norms into account, the Czech Republic has made a decision seeking to once again show loyalty to its ally, which has been declared an absolute priority recently,” wrote Russia’s Foreign Ministry. “We consider the decision made by Prague to be a deliberate and politically motivated step aimed at undermining the constructive foundations of bilateral cooperation,” the statement says.
Czech president Miloš Zeman, who takes Russia’s side in most disputes, has come in for criticism for calling into question the decision to hand Nikulin over to the Americans. Earlier, when Russian president Vladimir Putin outraged most Czechs by claiming that the military-grade poison used in attacking a former Russian spy could have come from the Czech Republic, Zeman suggested an investigation to see if the claim were true. The Czech Communist party has also criticized the decision to send Nikulin to the U.S., warning it could make negotiations over forming a new government more complicated.
