Infamous Russian hacker goes free from jail

Vladimir Anikeev, the former leader of the hacktivist group “Anonymous International,” has gone free from jail. The group is known for hacking and leaking the private correspondence of several prominent state officials and business people, including Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s press secretary, pro-Kremlin TV pundit Dmitry Kiselyov, and Kremlin administrator Timur Prokopenko.

According to Anikeev’s lawyer, his client is one of the first Russian prisoners to go free early, thanks to new legislation that recalculates how pretrial detention is counted toward inmates’ sentences.

Anikeev was sentenced to two years in prison in 2016. Last December, he asked for early parole, but his application was rejected. Under his original sentence, before the new law was enacted, he would have gone free on November 8, 2018.

Under the new law, one day in pretrial detention is equal to one and a half days in a standard regime penal colony or a juvenile correctional facility. The exchange rate jumps to two days in a penal colony settlement. The old one-to-one coefficient still applies to convicts placed in high-security prisons. A day’s house arrest is equal to half a day in pretrial detention, making it equal to 0.75 days in a standard regime penal colony or juvenile center, or one full day in a penal colony settlement.