Türkiye extradites Moscow bomb attack suspect to Russia

The perpetrator behind a bomb attack in Moscow that left two individuals injured has been extradited to his home country.

Evgenii Serebriakov, identified by the Russian Interpol Unit as the suspect, was apprehended in Bodrum, Mugla, and processed by local authorities before being flown back to Russia.

Detained in no time

Serebriakov was detained by Turkish police and the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) shortly after arriving in Bodrum. Following his arrest, he was held at the Mugla Police Department for processing.

According to his statement to the police, Serebriakov confessed to placing the bomb in the vehicle in exchange for money. The explosion, which occurred in a parked car in Moscow, injured two people, including a Russian military intelligence officer. After completing the necessary procedures, Serebriakov was handed over to Russian Interpol officials at Bodrum Milas Airport and subsequently extradited to Russia.

Serebriakov’s history

Serebriakov first appeared on the FBI’s wanted list in 2018. Around the same time, the U.S. Department of Justice implicated him in various cyber incidents, including interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. According to the FBI and other Western sources, Serebriakov is a high-ranking officer in the Russian military intelligence service, known in the cyber world as Sandworm. This unit has been a formidable cyber actor for at least a decade.

The APT28 espionage group, managed by Evgenii Mikhaylovich Serebriakov and affiliated with the Russian military intelligence agency GRU, infiltrated the International Olympic Committee’s critical systems in 2016, stealing sensitive data. Serebriakov’s involvement in high-profile cyber operations continued with a failed attempt against the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague in 2018. Dutch security units captured him and three others with Wi-Fi hacking tools and laptops in a car rented in front of the OPCW building.