Tech

Russian Government Websites Are Currently Down

The reasons for the outage are unclear at this point, but there have been similar disruptions attributed to the Russian government in recent weeks.
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Image: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
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Hacking. Disinformation. Surveillance. CYBER is Motherboard's podcast and reporting on the dark underbelly of the internet.

Several Russian government websites, including the official Kremlin site, appear to be inaccessible as of Thursday morning.

The websites went down hours after Russian troops invaded Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Puting declared the beginning of a “special military operation” in its neighboring country. 

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At this point, it’s unclear why the Russian government websites are down. 

Motherboard was unable to access the Kremlin’s site, as well as that of the State Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, both from Russian and other countries’ IP addresses.

Do you have more information about this outage? Or similar cases of cyberattacks in Ukraine and Russia? We’d love to hear from you. From a non-work phone or computer, you can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, Wickr/Telegram/Wire @lorenzofb, or email lorenzofb@vice.com

Cybersecurity analysts and experts have long speculated about how cyberattacks and other cyber operations may play a role in the conflict. In recent weeks, both the Ukrainian and U.S. government accused Russia of launching cyberattacks to disrupt Ukrainian government and businesses websites

This is a breaking news story and we will update it once more information becomes available. 

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