Support The Moscow Times!

Hackers Target Campaign Website for Russia's Anti-War Presidential Hopeful

Russian presidential hopeful Boris Nadezhdin. Anatoly Maltsev / EPA / TASS

The website for anti-war presidential hopeful Boris Nadezhdin experienced an outage on Wednesday that his campaign said was caused by a denial-of-service attack.

“Our website has again been subjected to a DDoS attack. The malfunctions will be repaired as soon as possible,” Nadezhdin wrote on the messaging app Telegram.

The Moscow Times was unable to access the website as of Wednesday afternoon.

Nadezhdin had previously said his campaign website was hacked on Jan. 17.

Nadezhdin, 60, said Tuesday he had collected the 100,000 signatures of endorsement required under Russian election laws for candidates running from political parties that do not have representation in parliament.

But his campaign stressed that it aims to collect 150,000 signatures to send to Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) to avoid any mistakes in the paperwork.

The CEC last month cited improper signatures when barring another anti-war presidential hopeful, Yekaterina Duntsova, from running in the March election.

Nadezhdin is a veteran politician running from the center-right Civic Initiative party who calls himself a “principled opponent” of President Vladimir Putin’s policies.

The Kremlin said Wednesday it does not view Nadezhdin as a serious rival to Putin, who is widely expected to win his fifth overall presidential term.

Nadezhdin openly calls for ending the war against Ukraine, promises to end mobilization, return Russian soldiers home and free political prisoner if elected.

Thousands across Russia have in recent weeks left signatures for Nadezhdin to allow him to appear on the ballot in what some see as a form of anti-war protest in the face of the Kremlin’s widening crackdown on dissent.

Sign up for our free weekly newsletter

Our weekly newsletter contains a hand-picked selection of news, features, analysis and more from The Moscow Times. You will receive it in your mailbox every Friday. Never miss the latest news from Russia. Preview
Subscribers agree to the Privacy Policy

A Message from The Moscow Times:

Dear readers,

We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent."

These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate, unbiased reporting on Russia.

We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help.

Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It's quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact.

By supporting The Moscow Times, you're defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us.

Once
Monthly
Annual
Continue
paiment methods
Not ready to support today?
Remind me later.

Read more