“I’m not guilty,” Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov said in response to a charge of conspiracy to intentionally cause damage to a protected computer.

He said earlier in the hearing that he wanted “to go through the whole process as fast as possible.”

Kriuchkov, 26, also told U.S. Magistrate Judge Carla Baldwin that he knew the Russian government was aware of his case. Authorities have not alleged that Kriuchkov has ties to the Kremlin. Authorities initially said he was 27.