Post date: Oct 20, 2012 3:13:18 PM
Russian opposition decries attack on Internet voting site as denial of service messages slow elections of opposition council "shadow parliament".
MOSCOW, RUSSIA (OCTOBER 20, 2012) (REUTERS) - An online election to choose a "shadow parliament" to Russia's PresidentVladimir Putin was disrupted on Saturday (October 20) because of a cyber attack, the voting committee's chairman and opposition figures said.
Opponents of Putin say elections in Russia are rigged in favour of his ruling party and are instead holding their own Internet contest which they hope will reinvigorate the flagging opposition movement.The website allowing voters to cast their ballots was disrupted a day before the votes are due to end, because of hackers, the election chairman said. Information on the website, www.cvk2012.org told visitors that there may be problems casting their vote and to try back later.
At a park in central Moscow, volunteers held a rally and staffed a tent to help people register and vote for the 45-person coordinating council. Dozens of people stood in lines outside of tent, where the voting process was proceding slowly.
Nadezhda, a voting volunteer at the park said she thought attack was directed by the government.
"I think the authorities don't want this election to happen. They're messing with us, because they are afraid of us," Nadezhda said.
One of the organisers Dmitry Manakhov said he was still impressed with the amount of people who signed up to vote.
"At the moment, today's, yesterday's, 165,000 people registered, and at the moment, I think either an hour or an hour and a half ago there were 8,500 registered in addition. How many voted, I don't know. At a minimum, I voted at 7 in the morning," Manakhov said.
The 211 candidates standing include student activists, entrepreneurs, a former investment banker, bloggers, a socialite restaurateur, an author and politicians of every stripe.
Veteran opposition leaders such as former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov and former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov will compete with a host of lesser known contenders.
Nemtsov said he was proud to be part of such an event.
"If there hadn't been people around the tents, I would have thought that we all didn't do right. The fact that there is a line, this is really cool, that we're doing it correctly and honestly. The people aren't getting fooled, they can feel it from a mile away," he said.
The event drew several hundred people and was both in support of the internet elections and to protest the detaining of opposittion activists. Pussy Riot member Yekaterina Samutsevich, recetnly freed from jail, appeared during the event, Interfax reported.
Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov was also at the rally, days after Russian investigators began criminal proceedings against him and an aide, saying a documentary on a pro-Kremlin TV channel showed evidence he had ploted mass disorder. His aide Konstantin Lebedev has been charged with plotting mass disorder and violence. Both men deny the accusations.
Nemtsov said the attack on the voting website and the crackdown on opposition figures was not a coincidence.
"If they are going to make shit as it was before the elections, as you remember they also made DOS attacks on LiveJournal, crashed the site of Ekho Moskvy, if you remember, they're only able to do shit. But I think it's a grand success that so many people were registered, that they fight against us and make programmes on the TV and showed on NTV," Nemtsov said.
The Kremlin has said it will ignore the opposition vote.