Reminds me of the difference between a pirate (the boat using kind) and a privateer - who was a pirate that didn't attack anyone from their own country, so their government gave them the permission to do it.
Russian and Chinese hackers are hard to pin down because they are beneficial to those governments, so you usually won't get any help catching them.
These two were caught in Poland and Ukraine. Had they still been in Russia, they would most likely never have been arrested.