Hackers infiltrated a Russian election infrastructure website described as “impossible” to breach, in an apparent attempt to embarrass the Kremlin ahead of upcoming elections.
The anonymous group CikLeak claimed responsibility for hacking Russia’s Central Election Commission’s automated voting system, GAS Elections 2.0, the Kyiv Post reported.
The hackers broke into the system and obtained information including internal company documents, meeting recordings, passwords and contact details for employees.
On a website dedicated to the hack, CikLeak said the infiltration wasn’t about obtaining personal information or meddling with the remote voting process, but about showing how easy it would be to interfere in Russia’s upcoming federal elections.
The hack is particularly embarrassing for Vladimir Putin ahead of the Sept. 18 State Duma elections, in which the Russian president’s ruling United Russia party is expected to retain its dominance.
Last month, Ella Pamfilova, head of Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) and a top Putin ally, said GAS Elections 2.0 was “impossible to hack,” even though it has faced a number of cyberattacks since its launch earlier this year.
CikLeak fears that the State Duma elections, the first to take place since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, could be rigged by the authorities to falsify the election results.
The group also urged Russians to vote in person rather than risk using the “opaque” remote electronic voting system.
“Now we see from the inside that holding elections and producing the desired results is a major stress on the system. Let’s not make their job easier: come to the polling stations with your feet, on the last day of voting, to make the results more difficult to falsify,” Cikleak posted online.
“By participating in the elections, you will be able to observe the electoral process yourself and clearly see that the majority of our fellow citizens want peace as soon as possible and are not voting for a party to war.”
While Putin’s party is expected to retain control of the 450-seat State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, voter turnout could offer a window into the dissatisfaction some Russians are feeling with the war, which has now entered its fifth year.
Yabloko, the only political party in Russia opposed to the war in Ukraine, was blocked from running in the parliamentary elections by the country’s Supreme Court.
The move came as support for the normally fringe group was growing, with some polls showing it could have received 9 percent of the vote.
Some Yabloko candidates are still running in this month’s elections as the court’s ruling does not apply to single-seat constituencies, but they appear unlikely to win any seats, Reuters reported.
