Russian Election Fraud Watchdogs Hacked and Shut Down

On the day Russians elected the lower chamber of parliament, many of the country’s major websites that were keeping tabs on what went down in the election centers were suddenly taken down due to hacking operations.

Forbes Russia, Golos, considered to be the election’s watchdog, Balshoi Gorod, Slon.ru, LiveJournal social network and the site of New Times were shut down after a hacking operation that allegedly wanted to make sure citizens will not be informed, reports ZeeNews.

Since Facebook and Twitter remained operational, most sites turned to them to inform their readers.

"The attack on the website on election day is apparently tied to an attempt to publish information about violations," Aleksei Venediktov, chief editor of the Ekho Moskvy radio, said on his blog.

The main suspect in this case seems Vladimir Putin and the political party he is running. Many believe that this was an attempt to make sure they would obtain the most votes without anyone knowing about the violations they committed in order to win the elections.