Prior to the war in Ukraine, the group has been “widely regarded as a semi-autonomous asset of the Russian intelligence services” by IT experts because its activity aligned with Russian security interests. Conti publicly pledged their allegiance to the Russian government after the invasion of Ukraine in Spring 2022, but revoked it after serious backlash. However, leaked documents from February 2022 indicate that some members of the group had informal ties to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).