Hacker attack on Russian TV, Moscow: “Ukrainians did it”

Brussels – An “unprecedented” cyber attack: With these words, the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, commented on the blackout of the state broadcaster Vgtrk that occurred on Monday (Oct. 7), Vladimir Putin‘s birthday. According to Moscow reports, the origin is reportedly Ukrainian.

In the early morning hours, the Russian company’s internal online and broadcast services—defined by Peskov himself as a “critical infrastructure facility“—have failed for several hours, including streaming of TV and radio channels Russia-1 and Russia-24. Vgtrk communicated late this morning that “everything is functioning normally” and “no significant damage has been caused to operations.”

“Specialists” are working to determine the perpetrators’ identities and “eliminate the consequences of this malicious interference.” Still, the Gazeta.ru website reported that the hacker group Sudo rm-Rf, which is linked to Ukraine, was behind the attack.

For now, Kyiv has not officially claimed authorship of the attack, which occurred on the Russian president’s 72nd birthday. According to the Politico newspaper, sources inside Ukrainian law enforcement reportedly said that “Ukrainian hackers congratulated Putin on his birthday.”