KRASNOYARSK, March 29 - RAPSI, Anton Andreyev. A Krasnoyarsk court Friday sentenced Vasily Nikitin, 31, to one year of probation based on his conviction for having blocked access to Russian President Vladimir Putin's website in May 2012.
Probation means that convict must be under police oversight and can't visit certain places, leave his apartment in certain hours, etc.
The court representative said the sentence was mitigated because the defendant had pleaded partially guilty during the investigation.
According to the Federal Security Service (FSB), Nikitin, a resident of Krasnoyarsk, used a special computer program to block the president's website to support the March of Millions opposition rally.
In mid January, the defendant pleaded not guilty. He claimed that he did not know the program could be harmful and could block websites. He faced a maximum sentence of four years in prison.
Another Krasnoyarsk resident, a 19-year-old student, was accused last June of attacking the government's and the president's websites on May 6 and 7, 2012 after watching a video by the Anonymous hacker group.
Anonymous gained international notoriety in late 2010 when it organized a series of DDoS-attacks on the websites of companies and organizations which were anti-WikiLeaks.
In February 2012, Anonymous attacked the websites of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the CIA and the FBI.