If you are Russian, think twice before running a TOR exit node

In Moscow: Russian officials made an arrest of a mathematics teacher named Dmitry Bogatov on accusations of organizing riots and calling for terrorist activities or justifying the use of terrorism via the Internet. Lecturer works at Moscow’s Finance and Law University, and he was well known for running a Tor exit node from his home.

Authorities believed that he was the main suspect and the cause behind the April 2nd anti-government protests in Moscow. Police detained between 20 to 30 people in central Moscow as they tried to organize a march towards Kremlin.

They Seem to Believe that Bogatov is an Online User who went by the name “Airat Bashirov”, who posted several rebellious messages on the sysadmin.ru website. After the message was posted before the protests it made the participants attend the protest with bottles, fabric, gasoline, turpentine, foam plastic.

A HackerNews Post said, “Bogatov’s friends believe Bashirov used Tor to post those messages online, and Bogatov’s Tor server was the exit node of that particular message, leaving Bogatov’s home IP address behind.”

After the incident, Bogatov was arrested on April 6th but he was released the next day on one basis- he shouldn’t travel out of Moscow.

But the same judge after two days turned down his decision and ordered the arrest of Bogatov and remanded him for 72 hours.

Further, on Monday, April 10th, he extended the suspect’s arrest for two more months and currently in the pre-trial detention center, until June 8th, as the authorities are currently verifying the seized equipment from his home.

According to several Russian media’s, Bogatov’s Lawyer has already contested the Charges.

Dmitry Bogatov’s mother Margarita Bogatova told that she has a documentary evidence of her son’s innocence – surveillance footage showing Bogatov food shopping with his wife at the time of the incidence he is being accused off.

The Lawyer submitted the video evidence of him at the local gym and grocery store at the time of the incendiary messages were posted online. Even messages were posted in the name “Airat Bogatov” when he was imprisoned.

Currently, Bogatov’s Tor Node is Down and follow the safety tips for running a Tor node and avoid it from your home Internet connection. The best quick tip is to use a VPN combined with Tor for protecting your Physical connection it is not only for Tor Exit Nodes but mandatory for a general user.