3 Russian Cyberexperts Arrested by Putin after Trump Inauguration [View all]

[dooner]

I'm just wondering..

Does it seem oddly coincidental that in January, 2017 Putin suddenly and dramatically arrested 3 Russian cyber-security experts and charged them with treason, reportedly related to US election-related hacking? One guy (Sergei Mikhailov, head of Center for Information Security, an arm of the Russian intelligence agency known by the acronym FSB) was dragged out of high-level meeting with a bag over his head. Another guy was a lead researcher at Kapersky Labs.

The arrests were widely reported on January 25, 2017 -- 5 days after Trumps inauguration.
Were the arrested cyber experts our secret sources of information on Russian hacking? Did "somebody" with access to US top secret information leak the identity of these 3 to the Russians, leading to their dramatic arrest?

Some media speculated that the 3 could have been arrested by Putin because of revelations in Steele Dossier (made public January 10, 2017.) Others speculated that Putin was throwing the US a bone by arresting those involved in our hacking. (Ha ha, seems unlikely!)

Quartz.com (is this a reliable news source?) reported:
One way or another, the arrests—according to the Russian media accounts—are linked to the country’s hacking of the US election. One suggestion is that those arrested are among the sources that led US intelligence agencies to conclude categorically that Russia hacked the election, that Putin ordered the hack, and that the objective was to help Trump.

Russian media suggest that one or more of the trio either leaked details of Russia’s role directly to American intelligence, or to Christopher Steele, the former British spy believed to have compiled the so-called Trump dossier. The dossier is a 35-page memo that suggested various links between Trump and Russia, involving information that allegedly made him vulnerable to extortion.

https://qz.com/898168/three-russian-cyber-arrests-one-suspicious-death-and-a-new-twist-in-the-us-election-hack/

The Guardian (UK) ran a story, saying Russia arrested them for being linked to the CIA.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/31/russian-cybersecurity-experts-face-treason-charges-cia

The NY Times suggested the arrests could be Russia's attempt to appease the US, by arresting hackers to endear himself to us. (That seems pretty unlikely given what we know today.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/world/europe/sergei-mikhailov-russian-cybercrimes-agent-arrested.html

In January 2017 Trump takes office and Putin arrests Russian cyber-experts and charges them with treason for working with the CIA.

Quite a coincidence?!