Man’s name is Karim Baratov. “Karim” sounds Muslim (as in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). Kazakhstan is about 70% Muslim, 30% non-Muslim (mostly Russian Orthodox).
All true but from info available and neighbors’ reactions sounded more like an atheist, saw his pic on TV and he looks of mixed racial background with some Oriental thrown into the mix (origin of the computer skills no doubt).
Getting the impression that this plays out as one of three options,
(a) four lone wolves interacting with rogue FSB agents mainly to make money
(b) organized state-sponsored hacking for political gain with hackers given carte blanche to make money from non-political sources that they uncovered in the process
(c) double game of some kind, byzantine implications
So I think it’s more than just a part of the Yahoo hacking story (which is big in itself) and yes, I think it will intrude into the core of the current spy vs spy drama but who knows whether in a pro or anti Trump fashion once all narratives are on the table?
Could be packaged up as smoking gun of Russian interference against Democrats or as earlier signs of Russian activity without that agenda or as pro-Trump now finally we are getting some co-operation and the FSB has cleaned house.
And whether any of this is true or false is anybody’s guess.