When a group of international investigative journalists and researchers broke the news that spyware called Pegasus, produced by the Israeli NSO Group, had helped repressive governments across the world spy on journalists, activists and lawyers on an unprecedented scale, the question emerged: Where was Russia?
Russia’s government bodies — the secret services — are known to actively spy on journalists, activists, and lawyers. The NSO Group said it only sold spyware to vetted government bodies, not to private actors. And the relationship between Israel and Russia has been sufficiently close for years. So why is the FSB, or any other Russian agency, not on the list of NSO clients?
It is a good question — one my colleagues and I have been asking ourselves for almost a decade.
Why is Russia not using Pegasus spyware?Read More
