Basketball player arrested for alleged ransomware ties freed in Russia-France prisoner swap

French authorities returned Russian basketball player Daniil Kasatkin to Russia in a prisoner exchange for researcher Laurent Vinatier; Kasatkin had been detained in Paris on a U.S. warrant alleging he acted as a negotiator for a ransomware gang possibly tied to Conti, which targeted about 900 organizations between 2020 and 2022. The report notes France informed the U.S. of the swap, Kasatkin’s denial of involvement, and recent U.S.-led extraditions of suspected Russian ransomware affiliates.