Putin’s speech is blacked out by ‘major hack’ on online state TV during his state-of-the-union address with message on blank screens blaming ‘technical works’
- Vladimir Putin delivered his state-of-the-union address to Russia’s parliament
- He accused the West of starting the war in Ukraine to gain ‘limitless power’
Vladimir Putin was blacked out by a potential ‘major hack’ across Russia while delivering his state-of-the-union speech today – as a message on blank screens blamed ‘technical works’.
The web links of main state channels, which are part of All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company [VGTRK], were hit by an apparent major hacking as Putin spoke to lawmakers in Russia’s parliament.
Instead of Putin’s speech, a notice on screen announced ‘Mistake 500’ and that ‘Technical works’ were underway.
There was no immediate official confirmation of hacking – but it appeared a major problem had hit the state broadcaster across all 11 of Russia’s time zones.
The state-run RIA Novosti news agency said the outage was the result of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.
Instead of Putin’s speech, a notice on screen announced ‘Mistake 500’ and that ‘Technical works’ were underway
Putin today accused the West of starting the war in Ukraine and of trying to turn it into a global conflict against Russia to gain ‘limitless power’
Jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s team claimed Putin said the websites of Russian TV channels were subjected to a DDoS attack during his speech to the Federal Assembly.
Radio Mayak – also blocked – said the web channels were hit by hackers.
Shortly before the speech started, state TV channels had broadcast a segment on the technical preparations that go into broadcasting the speech, saying the live stream would be carried across all major Russian TV channels.
When he was on air, Putin’s address accused the West of starting the war in Ukraine and of plotting to turn it into a global conflict against Russia to gain ‘limitless power’.
‘We were doing everything possible to solve this problem peacefully, negotiating a peaceful way out of this difficult conflict, but behind our backs a very different scenario was being prepared,’ Putin told lawmakers in Russia’s parliament.
But the US and Ukraine quickly hit back at the Russian leader’s claims.
Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said the speech demonstrated the ‘hopelessness of [Putin’s] position’ and that he was ‘in a completely different reality’.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said there is ‘a kind of absurdity in the notion that Russia was under some form of military threat from Ukraine or anyone else,’ hours before president Joe Biden is set to give a speech of his own in Warsaw.
Putin’s address comes days before the war in Ukraine passes the one-year mark on Friday.
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