Head of hosting firm Aeza arrested in Russia

The head of the Russian IT company Aeza Group, which is linked to the Doppelgänger disinformation campaign and hosting for cybercriminal infrastructure, was detained in Moscow. Yuri Bozoyan and two of his colleagues are accused of creating a criminal group and selling drugs.

Yuri Bozoyan, who heads the St. Petersburg-based Aeza Group, was taken into custody along with two subordinates, Maxim Orel and Tatyana Zubova. They are suspected of involvement in the distribution of narcotics through the darknet and participation in a criminal organization.

1. Aeza, founded in 2021, offers server rental services. Its office is located in a building that previously belonged to the media empire of Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was the founder of the “troll factories”.
2. Analysts have repeatedly linked Aeza to the Doppelgänger campaign, which published fake materials under the guise of credible Western media outlets (in particular, Der Spiegel, The Guardian), spreading pro-Kremlin narratives.
3. Moreover, the firm allegedly provided hosting for malware infrastructure, such as Lumma and Meduza, and also worked as a “bulletproof” hosting – protection for hackers that protects customers from law enforcement agencies.

The investigation also suspects Bozoyan and co-founder Arseny Penzev of supporting the darknet site BlackSprut – a large online drug store. In February 2025, police purchased mephedrone through a fake agent, which was the beginning of a special operation.

Aeza Group appeared in reports by analytical groups as an unreliable hoster operating through darknet forums. The company’s activities echo practices used by cyberarmies to host command-and-control (C2) servers for malicious campaigns.

The arrests come as Russian authorities are actively “cleaning up” infrastructure that has gotten out of control. Analysts say some of these arrests are either part of an internal conflict between law enforcement agencies or an attempt to control the criminal sector under sanctions and isolation. The arrest of Aeza’s leadership points to the blurring of boundaries between state control, disinformation, and cybercrime in Russia. Campaigns like Doppelgänger don’t emerge in a vacuum—they require the technical infrastructure that companies like Aeza provide.

This case is a signal to Western intelligence agencies that the Kremlin’s information warfare infrastructure is inextricably linked to drug trafficking, the darknet, and malware. This once again confirms the need to put pressure on companies that provide “anonymous” hosting services for destructive purposes.