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This Russian Tech Bro Helped Steal $93 Million and Landed in US Prison. Then Putin Called
In the epic US-Russian prisoner swap last summer, Vladimir Putin brought home an assassin, spies, and another prized ally: the man behind one of the biggest insider trading cases of all time.
The then 42-year-old tech executive from Moscow seemed upbeat—quick with a smile on his pinchable cheeks and unerringly polite, just as he had been during his arrest near a Swiss ski resort in March 2021, his months of detention in Switzerland, his extradition to the United States that December, his indictment and trial on hacking and wire fraud charges, and his swift conviction. It’s the one that brought Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan home to the United States—and sent back to Russia a Kremlin-linked assassin and a husband-and-wife duo of spies who were so deep undercover that their kids didn’t learn they were Russian until they got on the plane. In a montage later obtained by US prosecutors, Klyushin dives into a country club pool; his bride-to-be, Zhannetta, sips pink champagne on an outdoor bed draped with chiffon and roses; he picks her up in a white Porsche convertible; she’s gorgeous in her backless gown; he’s handsome, if a little goofy, in his tux and subtle mullet; they dance and laugh and stare meaningfully at the fireworks punctuating the perfect night.
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