On Putin’s birthday, a hacker strike interrupts Russian official media.

On Monday, VGTRK-a Russian state media company responsible for operating Russia’s main national television channels-fell victim to a severe cyberattack. This is in accordance with a Ukrainian government official who blamed Ukrainian hackers.

Well into Monday, VGTRK’s website was unreachable, as was its Rossiya-24 news channel, which broadcasts news 24/7, to online audiences. On this development, Kremlin’s official representative Dmitry Peskov said that already VGTRK is working in an active way on recovery from such an attack. He further said the company is investigating this incident in detail to trace from where such attackers targeted such an important part of the media infrastructure in Russia.

VGTRK has not commented on the incident so far. Reuters sent a request for comments on the attack. As Gazeta.ru reported with reference to its source that remained unknown, hackers attacked the external and internal services of VGTRK, which runs a number of radio stations and dozens of regional channels in all parts of the country. Synchronized Action: the cyber attack happened in the most appropriate time for this- the 72nd birthday of the Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry, did not point any finger for the attack. Instead, she claimed that Russian media have long been a target of hostility from what she calls the “collective West”. Zakharova said that the cyberattack is part of the more general “hybrid war” against Russia. She went on to hint that Moscow is going to raise this issue of a cyberattack at different international forums, including discussions at UNESCO-the United Nations agency specifically chiseled out for fostering freedom of speech.

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