Russia Detects ‘Cyberattacks’ from Abroad Targeting Parliamentary Elections

The parliamentary and local elections, which began on Friday, are to culminate on Sunday.

President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia Party is expected to win.

The elections commission said Saturday that it had recorded “three cyberattacks” on its resources for remote online voting “from foreign countries.”

The attacks “resulted in temporary delays of access to relevant websites,” it said.

“Yesterday, we recorded three targeted attacks from abroad,” said Alexander Sokolchuk, the head of the commission's center for informatization.

According to Sokolchuk, two of the attacks were aimed at the commission's website, while a third was a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.

“The attack was quite powerful,” he said.

“Preparations” for further attacks, the official added, “are underway for tomorrow.”

Sokolchuk did not name the countries involved, but authorities have previously said that Western social media platforms are involved.

The Russian Investigative Committee said it will conduct an investigation into the cyberattacks.