Huge hack shuts down Russian online state media on Putin’s birthday

INDEPENDENT: Ukrainian-linked hackers have hit a Russian state media channel in an “unprecedented” cyberattack, according to reports.

Kyiv-based hacker group “sudo rm-RF” disabled Russian state broadcaster VGTRK’s online broadcasting and some internal services on Monday morning, news outlet Gazeta reported.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov expressed support for the channel and said specialists were working to determine who was responsible for the attack.

“Our state media holding, one of the largest, has faced an unprecedented hacker attack on its digital infrastructure,” Mr Peskov said.

Kyiv did not officially claim responsibility for the attack but a Ukrainian official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Ukrainian hackers had carried out a “large-scale attack” on Russia.

“Ukrainian hackers congratulated Putin on his birthday by carrying out a large-scale attack on the all-Russian state television and radio broadcasting company,” a Ukrainian law enforcement official told Politico.

The main Rossiya-1, Rossiya-24 and Kultura channels were among those affected, as well as radio stations including Vesti FM and Mayak, according to Tass news agency.

An error message on the channel’s livestream read: “503 Service Unavailable. No server is available to handle this request.”

Vladimir Putin turned 72 on Monday - when he was hailed as a “tsar” - referring to the old leader of the Russian Empire.

Putin, who took the Kremlin’s top job just eight years after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, is the longest serving Kremlin leader since Josef Stalin who died at his dacha outside Moscow in 1953 aged 74.

Ultra-nationalist Alexander Dugin said “God save the Tsar!,” and praised Putin for ruling Russia “confidently and unhurriedly”.

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova claimed Russian media had become the target of the “collective West” and a “hybrid war”.

She said Moscow would raise the cyberattack in all international forums, including at UNESCO, the UN agency which promotes freedom of speech.