Belous Georgy Vyacheslavovich

2022: Conviction for using the protected Vipole messenger

The Oktyabrsky District Court of Tomsk sentenced Belous Georgy Vyacheslavovich to three years of restriction of freedom in connection with the use of the protected Vipole messenger. The court qualified the actions of the defendant under Part 1 of Art. 273 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (creation, use and distribution of malicious computer programs). Such information is given in the guilty verdict in case No. 1-981/2022 of October 21, 2022, published on the court's website on November 10, 2022.^[1]

The Russian was sentenced to three years for using a secure messenger
Photo: nintendolife.com/Soumil Kumar

The investigation established that Georgy Belous in October 2018 deliberately, in order to hide traces of his activities on the Internet, regularly used the "malicious computer program Vipol," having previously recorded it on a Samsung MZ-76E250 SSD. As noted, the defendant realized that the use of this program would lead to the neutralization of the means of protecting computer information of providers.

As a result of Belous G.V.'s use of the malicious computer program "Vipole," the means of protecting computer information were neutralized, expressed in the impossibility of unambiguous identification of the user Belous G.V. and his network activity on the Internet, including the provider of PJSC Rostelecom, which provided communication services, including access to the Internet at the place of residence of Belous G.V. in the apartment... in Tomsk, the verdict says.

At the same time, the verdict does not specify for what purposes the defendant used the Vipole messenger.

Expert Ivan Begtin, director of the ANO Infoculture, shared his opinion on his Telegram channel that VPNs, messengers like Signal, and many more fall under the wording that applies to the computer program used by the defendant.^[2]

A similar opinion is shared by the famous expert in the field of information security Alexey Lukatsky:

According to the published materials of the case, we are talking not just about, but about VPN the protected VIPole messenger, which the accused used. On the one hand, not a VPN. On the other hand, it was the functionality of secure communication that served as a sign of malware. Considering that today almost all messengers have such functionality, it turns out that you can attract almost every user, Telegram Signal,, etc. Threema Whatsapp At least, in the risk zone, those messengers whose representative offices are not Russia in and who do not comply with the requirements for identifications subscribers established by law. But exactly for the same reasons, the use of VPN can be qualified in a similar way, - wrote Alexey Lukatsky in his Telegram channel.[3]

According to the Vipole description available in the App Store and Google play, the program is a secure messenger that uses strong encryption technologies to ensure complete privacy of users and reliable protection of communications and files from unauthorized access or interception attempts. Vipole is capable of encrypting instant messages, group chats, voice calls, video calls. Thanks to the encryption used, the server does not have access to user data, and it is impossible to access them, the developers say.^[4]

Belous G.V. admitted his guilt in the charge in full and repented of what he had done. During the preliminary investigation, after consulting with the defender, he filed a petition for a verdict in a special procedure for making a court decision without a trial. The defendant explained that he was aware of the nature and consequences of ruling a sentence without a trial, and that the limits of appealing such a sentence were known to him and understood.

Georgy Belous

For its part, the court considered that all the conditions of the decision of the verdict without a trial in the order of Chapter 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation were observed.

When passing the verdict, the court took into account the nature and degree of public danger committed by G.V. Belous "an intentional crime of moderate severity caused by the actual circumstances of the crime and the consequences that occurred." The circumstance mitigating the punishment was the active contribution to the investigation of the crime by the defendant.

As a result, the court found Georgy Belous guilty and sentenced him to 3 years of restriction of freedom. In particular, he has no right to travel outside the territory of Tomsk, cannot change his place of residence or stay without the consent of a specialized government agency that oversees the serving of sentences by convicts in the form of restriction of freedom. Belous is also obliged to appear in this government agency for registration once a month.

As of November 10, 2022, the verdict has not yet entered into force and can be appealed on appeal to the Tomsk Regional Court through the Oktyabrsky District Court of Tomsk within 10 days from the date of its proclamation.

Article 273 of the Criminal Code establishes criminal liability for the creation, distribution or use of computer programs or other computer information knowingly intended for unauthorized destruction, blocking, modification, copying of computer information or neutralizing the means of protecting computer information. The maximum punishment provides for imprisonment for up to seven years.

The very fact of downloading the program, without its direct use, should not form a crime, Bulat Tugutov, partner of the law firm Nadmitov, Ivanov and Partners, head of the administrative and criminal law practice of the company in the economic sphere, told RBC. The fact of its use is important in order to be invisible on the Internet. Use is the direct application of this program for its intended purpose, which in this case is aimed at blocking and neutralizing computer protection, he said in a conversation with RBC.

In this case, the malware of a computer program is "justified" by the inability to identify its user. Such a "justification" cannot be called otherwise than a mockery of common sense, including the meaning inherent in the disposition of Article 273 of the Criminal Code. The danger that the established precedent will initiate such an unlawful practice of applying this article is also aggravated by the fact that the verdict was decided in a special order. This means that it can be appealed only on a limited range of grounds, which does not include the inconsistency of the court's conclusions with the established factual circumstances, "Vadim Klyuvgant, partner of the Pen & Paper Bar Association, told the publication.

Due to the fact that the accused Belous pleaded guilty, the need to prove the existence of corpus delicti in his actions has disappeared, said Vladimir Shalaev, a lawyer for the Legal Group. Secondly, the article criminalizes the neutralization of the means of protecting computer information. It seems doubtful that the use of anonymizer neutralizes "means of protecting computer information," the article is focused on creating viruses, and not using software, he said

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