Moscow: In a significant development, Russia’s first deployment of a remote electronic voting system has been met with a barrage of cyber attacks. Ella Pamfilova, the head of the Russian Central Election Commission, reported that the monitoring portal of the new voting system was bombarded with approximately 30,000 cyber attacks. These incidents saw a marked increase on Saturday, overshadowing the numbers from the previous day.
Vadim Kovalev, who leads the election observation team in Moscow, pointed to America and Britain as the origins of these cyber assaults. He stated, “Most of the servers from which the attacks are taking place are located in America and Britain.”
The timing of these attacks coincides with Russia’s presidential election, which commenced on March 15 and is set to conclude on March 17. This election cycle is notable for the introduction of remote electronic voting in select regions, a first for the country. The electoral race features incumbent President Vladimir Putin, Leonid Slutsky representing the Liberal Democratic Party, Nikolai Kharitonov from the Russian Communist Party, Vladislav Davankov of the New People Party, and an independent candidate, all vying for the presidency.
Xinhua news agency has disclosed that over 90,000 polling stations are operational nationwide to facilitate this election. The voting process kicked off in the Far Eastern regions of Kamchatka and Chukotka, with Kaliningrad, situated at Russia’s western frontier, scheduled to close the voting.
The Russian Central Election Commission has released data indicating the eligibility of roughly 110 million voters to participate in this electoral process. The commission has assured that the election results will be announced before March 28, amidst the backdrop of these cybersecurity challenges.
