Joel Samuels, University of South Carolina
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)
(THE CONVERSATION) During the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the United States regularly exchanged accusations of espionage. The prototypical image of Cold War spies is etched in the minds of anyone who lived through that period or watched its movies – trenchcoat-wearing, “Spy vs. Spy” caricatures exchanging packages in dark alleys.
Modern-day espionage has a different image. Instead of a grizzled Cold Warrior, we picture millennials behind a computer screen hacking government agencies, state election systems, military contractors, social network behemoths and – as alleged last week – major political parties.
On Friday, the Department of Justice announced the indictments of 12 Russian nationals for hacking into emails and servers of the Democratic National Committee, party functionaries and state election officials as part of the investigation into interference with the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
As an expert on U.S.-Russian relations and the international rule of law, I believe the indictments are an important step in the effort to establish what happened in the months leading up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Democracy functions best when efforts to undermine it are brought into the open. Individual facts, when confirmed, become pieces to a puzzle that fit together to tell a story. In the end, even if the 12 Russians are never tried in the United States and this particular story cannot be uncovered fully, the example these indictments set will provide a road map for other countries facing similar challenges to their democracy.
But that positive example may be little solace for Americans who will feel frustrated if the facts behind Russia’s alleged role in election disruption are not fully uncovered.
Extradition unlikely
At the time of the alleged crimes, all 12 indicted individuals were employed by the GRU, the main intelligence agency for the Russian military and a Soviet-era remnant. They live and work in Russia.
Despite President Vladimir Putin’s promises to review the situation, no one expects that Russia will extradite the accused individuals. After all, if the indictments are true, those individuals were working for the Russian government when they committed the alleged crimes.
We have seen this very issue arise before, notably after Edward Snowden fled to Moscow in 2013. The United States accused Snowden of espionage and sought his extradition.
Russia refused, saying vaguely that Russia did not have grounds to arrest him.
The United States has similarly refused to extradite individuals to Russia, most recently Ilyas Akhmadov, a Chechen rebel leader who was accused by Russia of terrorism and subsequently granted asylum in the United States in 2004.
So the tenuous path to extradition runs in both directions.
Russia is not legally bound to extradite any of the 12 men who were indicted. Indeed, there is some question whether the United States and Russia have an extradition treaty at all.
In 1893, the Senate ratified an extradition treaty with the Emperor of Russia. President Grover Cleveland signed it into law. But by 1974, the U.S. State Department called the treaty “obsolete.”
Even if the 1893 treaty is still in force, one provision states that both the United States and Russia “shall not be required to deliver up their own citizens or subjects.”