A Moscow court on Thursday jailed the leader of a notorious hacking group for two years for breaking into the accounts of high-ranking Russian officials. Vladimir Anikeyev headed the Shaltai Boltai collective - Russian for "Humpty Dumpty" - believed to be behind high-profile hacks, including into the Twitter account of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
Anikeyev - who has been under arrest since October 2016 - was found guilty of gaining unauthorised access to computer data after a closed trial that was classified as "secret", the court said in a statement. He was handed the two-year sentence after striking a plea bargain and agreeing to cooperate with the authorities. Among those Anikeyev was accused of targeting were lead Kremlin propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov, presidential advisor Andrei Belousov and Medvedev's spokeswoman Natalia Timakova.