The story of Russia’s world famous porn hacker keeps popping up in the news. It’s not, unfortunately, because of any new examples of his brilliance. Rather the story keeps getting headlines because of the Russian keystones’ bungling. Anyone surprised?
You’ll remember how back in January a hacker caused a traffic jam on Moscow’s Garden Ring road when he placed a 2-minute porn clip on an electronic billboard. A month later Russian officials at the MVD’s Department “K” announced that they caught the filth bandit, a 41-year old unemployed man from Novorossiisk named Igor Blinnikov. The MVD miraculously became impeccable sleuths. How the partisans of good taste rejoiced. How the rest of us cried. Our new hero had fallen.
Now it seems that poor Blinnikov has been sentenced to five years in the slammer, according to the Moscow Times. Not, however, for the porno stunt but for selling 20 grams of pot. The paper goes on to say that Blinnikov still faces two years for the porno clip.
But wait, says the Novorossiisk prosecutor. It appears that Blinnikov is not the porno hacker after all! “Another person has now been arrested for this incident,” says Irina Saushkina, Novorossiisk’s deputy prosecutor. “Blinnikov has no connection to the distribution of the video clip.” Blinnikov’s role in all this, Saushkina says, is solely about hocking grass. The prosecutor remains tight lipped about who the new suspect is.
Not so fast. It seems that both the Novorossiisk prosecutor and the MVD officials in Moscow have experienced a bit of communication break down. When asked to confirm Blinnikov’s exoneration in the porno scandal, the MVD expressed bewilderment and reiterated that Blinnikov remained the only suspect. “I’m surprised that [officials] in Novorossiisk said this. The case is in Moscow. Our operatives came especially from the capital to Novorossiisk to arrest [Blinnikov],” says Irina Zubareva, the press secretary for Department “K”. When reporters went back to Saushkina for clarification, she retorted, “I won’t say anything.” Either clearly perturbed by all the media inquires or simply playing the usual chinovnik shuck and jive, she added, “I can’t work. I’ve been taking calls from the press for two days. I will not give any comment whatsoever.” Yeah right, can’t work. That’s a good one.
Crossed bureaucratic wires, plain evasion or . . . ? Or perhaps the MVD and prosecutor are covering up the fact that they don’t have the real hacker at all!
Let us pray, dear friends. Let us pray.
