ASTANA, July 18. /TASS/. Russian national Nikita Kislitsyn, a cybersecurity company executive who was detained in Kazakhstan at the US’ request, has not applied for asylum in Kazakhstan, the Kazakh ministry of labor and social protection told TASS on Tuesday.
"Russian citizen Nikita Kislitsyn has filed no request for asylum in Kazakhstan," it said.
According to earlier reports, Russian law enforcement agencies intend to seek Kislitsyn’s extradition to Russia. Kislitsyn, head of the department that develops solutions for protection against cyberattacks at F.A.C.C.T., a company previously known as Group-IB, was put on Russia’s federal wanted list as part of a criminal investigation into unlawful access to computer information protected by law. Moscow’s Tverskoy District Court sanctioned Kislitsyn’s arrest in absentia for two months from the date of his detention or from the date of his extradition to Russia.
Russian Consul General in the Kazakh city of Almaty Yevgeny Bobrov told TASS on June 28 that the consulate general issued a note to the Kazakh foreign ministry calling to refrain from expediting Kislitsyn’s extradition to the US.
Group-IB, which is engaged in research in the field of cybersecurity, rebranded itself as F.A.C.C.T. in April.