Source: www.rucriminal.info

The Main Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow terminated the criminal case of copyright infringement by Rambler Group while developing the Nginx web server. This was not done voluntarily by the GSU, but was forced at the request of the Moscow prosecutor's office, which did not see the events of the crime in the actions of the Nginx founders Igor Sysoev and Maxim Konovalov. In return for the collapsed and contracted case, the initiators of the attack on Nginx filed a lawsuit in the United States. The essence of the claims is this: the developer allegedly created the Nginx web server. while working in the Rambler Internet holding company and the rights to it must belong to Rambler. Both the criminal case and the lawsuit were based on the same document - the protocol of the survey of the former IT director of Rambler Alexander Korotkov. Allegedly, in 2019, he remembered how Nginx was actually created and tell the truth. Rucriminal.info has already published excerpts from these readings. Today we will publish them in their entirety. Just trust them is not worth it (therefore, by the way, and the prosecutor's office demanded to close the case). According to the materials available to the editorial office, the organizer of all the prosecution of Igor Sysoev and Maxim Konovalov is lawyer Vladimir Timoshin. It was he who conducted the Korotkov survey. He was assisted by a faithful assistant, also a lawyer, Maximilian Grishin.

And all the technical work on the gigantic fabrication was carried out by Group IB. Timoshin is known as a “decision”, having excellent corruption ties with the Main Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow and the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. This lawyer has organized more than one registered case in these departments. As a result, this time, Timoshin first resolved the issue of initiating a case with the General State Institution, and then began to “sculpt” the invoice for investigation together with Group IB. It took a talking head to voice part of the texture needed for the case, to find a reason in 2019 to raise the topic. She was made by Alexander Korotkov. Moreover, the same survey was written by Timoshin, Grishin, and Group IB representatives helped them. Who is behind the attack on Nginx and finances it?

It is believed that this is Alexander Mamut (co-owner of Rambler) and his son. They were the owners of the offshore Lynwood Investments CY Limited, which now has the right to demand Nginx from Igor Sysoev and Maxim Konovalov. However, for a very long time Timoshin and Grishin have been working for the same client. This is an oligarch from Kazakhstan Kenes Rakigev.

Previously, it was Timoshin and Grishin who organized all criminal cases against Rakishev’s enemies, for example, Mukhtar Ablyazov and Alexander Potkin. Rakishev manages the money of the top of Kazakhstan. Because of this, major global banks and companies prefer not to deal with Rakishev. Instead, he chose another way of investing - financing such raider attacks, as is the case with Nginx. If the attack is successful, then Rakishev cheaply gains control of the company, its assets, etc. Therefore, as our sources say, the Mamuts in this attack have a loyal ally in the person of Kenes Rakishev.

 

 

Moscow city on August 01, 2019

 

SURVEY PROTOCOL

 

This protocol was drawn up by me, the lawyer of the Moscow City Lawyer Chamber, Vladimir Anatolyevich Timoshin, who has the number in the register: 77/11430, certificate No. 12686, in accordance with subparagraph 2 of paragraph 3 of Article 6 of Federal Law dated May 31, 2002 No. 63-FZ “On Lawyers and Advocacy in the Russian Federation ”with the consent of the respondent in order to receive information and as part of the provision of qualified legal assistance to Lynwood Investments CY Limited, which has a registration number in the Republic of Cyprus: NOT 159138.

The interviewed person:

Surname Name Patronymic: Alexander Korotkov

Date of Birth:    ….

Affiliation: ORACLE Inc.

Phone number  ……

Place of registration: City of Moscow, ....

Identity document: Citizen passport ... ...

 

I agree to the survey ________________ / Korotkov A.G. /

Date: 08/01/2019

 

I have been explained the content of Article 51 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which provides that no one is obliged to testify against himself, his spouse and close relatives.

_______________________ / Korotkov A.G. / Date: 08/01/2019

 

1. Have you been in a labor relationship with the Rambler group of companies?

Answer: Yes, I was. In the period from August 23, 2007.

2. Do you know Igor Sysoev?

Answer: Yes, I’m familiar.

3. What do you know about the Anginix product?

Answer: I know that Anginix was developed at Rambler from 2002 to 2011 (9 years) as a key infrastructure component, which was designed to cope with the need for Rambler to optimize the rapidly growing Internet traffic in Russia in 2002 - 2011. (Rambler ranked first in terms of Russian Internet traffic in 2002-2007).

Since 2005, Anginix has been installed on 90% of all Rambler servers, and to date, all Rambler equipment provides the operation of Anginix as key software.

4. Who developed the Anginix?

Answer: Development and testing of Anginix software was handled by the Rambler Department of the NOC (Network Operation Center), namely, two web server developers (Igor web server developers) - Igor Sysoev and Maxim Dunin. In the period from 2004 to 2011, Anginix was developed, tested and debugged on all Rambler equipment (hundreds of servers).

However, de facto, all Rambler departments, including the Web Development Department (the largest technical department), were directly involved in identifying key functions, development and testing of the Enginix.

In fact, the Rambler Web Development Department used all the Rambler traffic to test this product.

5. Do you know Maxim Konovalov?

Answer: yes, I’m familiar. He served as Technical Director.

6. What tasks did Igor Sysoev and Maxim Konovalov face when developing Anginix?

Answer: The main task of I. Sysoev was the development of the Anginix Web Server.

M. Konovalov, as Technical Director of Rambler (Eng. Rambler CTO) was responsible for the installation of Anginix on the equipment of Rambler.

7. Who set the goals or gave instructions to I. Sysoev regarding development?

Answer: The tasks regarding the development of Anginixes were set before I. Sysoev Department of Web Development of Rambler. So, requests for the integration of functions in Anginix were sent to I. Sysoyev, and after integration, he was sent feedback on the performance of Anginix.

8. For which projects of the Rambler holding was the task of developing Anginix set?

Answer: For everyone. All Rambler projects (Engl. Rambler verticals) used Enginix as the main component of the software stack, in particular: “Search”, “Top 100”, “Mail”, “News” and all other projects.

9. How was the development and debugging of Anginix inside Rambler?

Answer: Development and debugging of Anginixes was carried out by I. Sysoev during working hours, which is confirmed by the time stamps of the Mercury repository. I. Sysoev, as the main developer of the Anginix and the Super-Administrator Rambler (Eng. Rambler Super-Administrator), had unlimited and uncontrolled access to all the servers of the Rambler, on which he deployed Anginiks. This circumstance made it possible to use the Rambler’s server fleet (thousands of machines), as well as Internet traffic passing through the Rambler’s server (20% of Russian Internet traffic).

10. Why did the Anginix not become an object of intellectual property owned by Rambler?

Answer: This happened due to the direct intent of I. Sysoev. So, A. Kostenko (Product Manager) repeatedly asked I. Sysoev to place Anginix under the appropriate license for developers.rambler.ru. However, I. Sysoev, enlisting the support of M. Konovalov, essentially sabotaged this initiative, coming up with various reasons, for example:

(a) “it will be very difficult to place Anginix under the SVN” (eng. SVN);

(b) “let's mark Anginix on svn.nginx.org” (Sysoev’s personal site, which was hosted on server hardware, also purchased with Rambler’s money).

 

08/31/2009 - Sysoev was made an account on developers.rambler.ru as the author for posting the sources.

11/09/2009 - Sysoev sabotages the deployment of Nginx on developers.rambler.ru.

11/25/2009 - Ulyana Antonova launches a discussion on legal issues of Rambler’s “free / open source software”.

11/25/2009 - In the same thread there is a comment by Konovalov on licensing Nginx. Given the context - this may mean recognition of Nginx as a product of Rambler by Konovalov.

11-12.2009 - in correspondence with the participation of Konovalov, attempts to organize work on the developers.rambler.ru project are visible.

01.01 - http://web.archive.org/web/20100115175825/http://developers.rambler.ru/ - web.archive shows the appearance of a new version of the site with several Rambler products.

11.2010 - http://web.archive.org/web/20101112184854/http://developers.rambler.ru/myrambler/ - no change. Nginx did not appear.

04.2011 - http://web.archive.org/web/20110410120719/http://developers.rambler.ru/opensource/ - the site has been redesigned. In the OpenSource section, Nginx is missing.

02.02.2012 - http://web.archive.org/web/20120229005737/http://developers.rambler.ru:80/opensource/tools/ - something was added, but not Nginx (this is understandable, because Sysoev is no longer in Rambler).

 

After several emails and resentment of A. Kostenko, Anginix was never posted on developers.rambler.ru.

11. In your opinion, was this intent self-serving?

Answer: I believe that yes, since in the future, a group of six people who were involved in the creation of the Enginx, in particular: Sysoev, Smirnov, Konovalov, Dunin, Alekseev, Kuznetsov, established a legal entity in the United States of America, naming it Enginix Inc. (Eng. NGINX Inc.). Shares of the named legal entity were subsequently disposed of for the amount of 670 million US dollars.

12. Why, in your opinion, Rambler did not receive a license for the Anginix product?

Answer: I believe that Konovalov M. and Sysoev I. received comprehensive comments on the existing conflicts in the legal field from the legal service of the Rambler holding company, which provided support for the holding's activity at that time, in particular, I saw correspondence between the holding’s lawyer - Ulyana Antonova - and M .Konovalov regarding the legislative regulation of exclusive rights to software (correspondence dated November 2009).

Thus, I believe that as of 2009, there was an organized group in which there was a clear distribution of roles, and the purpose of which was to deprive the Rambler holding of rights to Anginix.

13. Who do you think was part of this organized group?

Answer: In addition to the six people who founded Anginix Inc. (Eng. NGINX Inc.) The United States of America can also be distinguished: Mamontov, Dikarev, Chesnokov, possibly Marimorich (as the Administrator of Corporate Mail).

14. How were the roles distributed in this group?

Answer: This is a very difficult question, since the group was stable, I would even say it was conspiratorial in nature, the members of the group are extremely close, and not just work colleagues: they participated in many group events from 2005 - 2011: traveled and long trips, conducted informal meetings in nature, smoked weed ("tell me where to get green grass", etc.). However, I will assume that M. Konovalov, I. Sysoev and G. Smirnov were involved in the development of plans and the creation of conditions for depriving the Rambler holding of rights to the Enginix, M. Konovalov and A. Alekseev were involved in the coordination of the actions of the members of the group, developing ways and concealment - Ulyana Antonova, acting on the instructions of M. Konovalov and being in official dependence on him. The immediate concealment of the traces was Gleb Smirnov, the head of the Network Operational Control Department, who physically removed server equipment from the holding and also deleted all information regarding the Anginiks project within six months after I. Sysoev and M. Konovalov left Rambler.

15. What, in your opinion, is the amount of damage caused to Rambler by the actions of these persons?

Answer: from a technical and infrastructural point of view, the amount of damage can be determined in the amount of 670 million US dollars.

 

It’s written correctly from my words, I read it.

Korotkov Alexander Germanovich

 

_________________

 

 

To be continued

Alexey Ermakov

Source: www.rucriminal.info