Kremlin: U.S. cyberattack could have brought down Russian government’s websites
The massive failures of Russian government websites on Wednesday morning could be linked to U.S. cyberattacks, Russian Senator Andrei Klimov told Open Media.
"Direct threats against the websites of Russian state structures from Washington have been made more than once, including recently, so I cannot rule out such a possibility," he said.
Earlier, The New York Times reported, citing sources, that the U.S. is preparing a cyber attack against Russia.
Officials in Joe Biden's administration told the publication that such a cyberattack, in response to the attach on U.S. government networks, would send a clear message to President Vladimir Putin, Russian intelligence agencies and the military, but would be invisible to the rest of the world.
“Most likely, the attack was sanctioned by the U.S. leadership and could, in particular, be a response to today's decision of the Roskomnadzor to slow down Twitter,” said Klimov.
"Every year our country is subjected to about 3-4 billion attacks. The infrastructure vital for the functioning of the country, such as the Central Election Committee’s website, are attacked. All these attacks are repelled, although it is not easy to do it," the MP explained.
On Wednesday, Russian users began experiencing difficulties accessing the websites of the Kremlin, the Russian government, the State Duma, the Federation Council, a number of ministries and Russian media watchdog, Roskomnadzor.
This happened two hours after the Roskomnadzor announced that it was beginning to slow down access to Twitter, accusing the social network of not complying with Russian laws.