MOSCOW (AP) — Several Russian media outlets were hacked Monday and a message appeared on their front pages condemning Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, while other media outlets were blocked by the Russian government over its war policy.
Media meddling alludes to the development of an anti-war sentiment among ordinary Russians, it is unclear who was to blame for the hacking. It also gives evidence of the tireless efforts of President Vladimir Putin’s government to suppress dissent.
The Russian communications and media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, has blocked several Russian and Ukrainian media outlets for their policy of invading ukrin.
Russian magazine The New Times, which has blatantly criticized the Kremlin, blocked for reporting the main points of Russian military casualties in Ukraine, which the Russian Defense Ministry did not disclose.
Protests opposing the invasion have erupted in Russia for four days, while nearly a million people have signed an online petition calling for an end to the war. Anti-war protesters in Russia have been subject to mass arrests while the government has limited social media and threatened to shut down independent news sites.
The state-run Tass news agency, the pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia, the St. Petersburg news site Fontanka and several other media sites were attacked on Monday. The independent news site Meduza published screenshots of a message, signed through the hacktivist. Motion Anonymous and “indifferent news hounds in Russia”, which gave the impression on the main pages of some of the pirated websites.
“Dear citizens. We urge you to prevent this madness, send your children and husbands to die,” the message reads. “In a few years, we will live like in North Korea. What’s in it for us? For Putin to enter the History Textbooks?This is our war, let’s prevent it!
Access to most Internet sites was restored an hour after the attack. Tass said the message contained “information that has nothing to do with reality. “
Meanwhile, an online petition to prevent war in Ukraine filed shortly after the invasion announced Thursday has garnered more than a million signatures, making it the most supportive online petition in Russia in recent years.
Since the first day of Thursday’s attack, Russians in Moscow, St. Petersburg and dozens of other cities have taken to the streets to protest against it, only to be quickly and brutally arrested by police.
On Monday, the rights organization OVD-Info, which tracks political arrests, counted at least 350 arrests of protesters in thirteen Russian cities. In the last five days of protests, more than 6,000 people were arrested, according to OVD-Info.
In an effort to quell critical voices, the Russian government has confined itself to Facebook, which has played a vital role in amplifying dissent. Netizens also reported riots on Twitter.
Russian also emphasized the media to cover the invasion in strict accordance with the official line and lamented that reports describing Russia’s attack on Ukraine as an “invasion” or a “war” are false.
The online page of Current Time, a Russian TV channel presented through the U. S. -funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which has criticized the Kremlin, became unavailable on Sunday after the channel reported receiving a notification from authorities.
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