Dagbladet was in a larger investigation into the finances of the Russian hacker group Killnet It was discovered that the famous Russian rapper Kaji Oboyama openly supported the hacker.
Killnet became a household name in Norway when they attacked the Norwegian authorities in June. The group originally developed malware, but after Russia invaded Ukraine, it was relaunched as part of Vladimir Putin’s cyber army. As a political player, they are now attacking NATO countries and other alleged enemies of Russia.
Kaji Oboyma’s support for this has now led his distribution company to cancel the song.
“We have begun the process of deleting the release, or removing it from our systems,” Bakai Kolchev, founder of Infinity Music, wrote to Dagbladet.
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He explains:
– As you understand, it may still be possible for someone else to post it, as this is technical material and does not constitute a crime. But we do not want to deal with this, although it is impossible to keep track of all publications and runs.
Kolchaev says that information in Kyrgyzstan about Killnet and other hacker groups is limited. But points out:
– We in Kyrgyzstan witnessed four revolutions and the government was overthrown. So we are well acquainted with political propaganda. I have many friends in Ukraine, and we see that the music community is divided into two camps – for and against.
Kolchaev further referred to the Infinity Music office, which did not answer follow-up questions from Dagbladet. Dagbladet also contacted Kaje Oboyma, but did not receive a response.
Expelled
The breakup between Kaje Oboyma and Infinity Music isn’t the first consequence of Killnet’s scrutiny.
Cyprus financial firm Exness told Dagbladet this fall that it had fired a trusted employee that day, after Dagbladet revealed that the Russian Exness employee was behind the registration of a jewelry company producing jewelry for Killnet.
The Ukrainian government also announced that it would take action, after Dagbladet revealed that funds from Russian hackers had been transferred through cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex.
Ukraine’s Minister of State Oleksandr Bornyakov, in Ukraine’s Ministry of Digitization, told Dagbladet that we will definitely respond to these possible sanctions violations.
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