Kommersant general director Demyan Kudryavtsev said earlier this week that leaked emails of Federal Youth Agency spokesperson Kristina Potupchik revealed a link between a 2008 directed-denial-of-service, or DDoS, attack on the newspaper's website and Nashi members.

In a press release Friday, the controversial youth group denied the allegations, saying the emails Kudryavtsev cites do not qualify as evidence that Nashi was responsible for the attack.

"The accusation was put forth on the basis of a certain document found by Demyan Kudryavtsev on the Internet, and not only does not contain any kind of direct evidence of Nashi's participation and Potupchik personally in the organization of an attack on Kommersant's site, but is in and of itself not suitable to be examined by a court as evidence," the press release said. It went on to say any statements to the contrary would be subject to lawsuits for libel.

The press release also compared Kudryavtsev's allegation to the U.S. government's 2003 claims that Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein was pursuing weapons of mass destruction, claims that were later proved false.