Several Russian state-controlled or state-aligned websites appeared to have been hacked early Monday.
The websites for the major Russian state-owned news agency, TASS, the Russian nationally distributed newspaper, Kommersant, and the daily broadsheet newspaper, Izvestia, which was founded in St. Petersburg during the Russian Revolution and was one of principal media outlets in the Soviet Union, all displayed a message signed purportedly by the notorious hacking collective Anonymous.
“Dear citizens. we call on you to stop this madness,” the message began. “don’t send your sons and husbands to sure death. Putin is making us lie and puts us in danger. We have been isolated from the world, no one is buying our oil & gas. In a few year’s time we’ll be living like in North Korea. Why do we need this? For Putin to make it to history books? This is not our war, let’s stop it!”
It continued, “This message will be deleted and some of us will be fired and maybe put to jail. But we can’t tolerate this anymore. Russian journalists who care. Anonymous.”
The message comes several days after Anonymous, an international hacking collective that has carried out cyberattacks against governments and corporations, appeared to declare war against Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Hellbound and Down 