MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- A political battle is raging in Russian cyberspace.
Opposition parties and independent media say murky forces have committed vast resources to hacking and crippling their Web sites in attacks similar to those that hit tech-savvy Estonia as the Baltic nation sparred with Russia over a Soviet war memorial.
While they offer no proof, the groups all point the finger at the Kremlin, calling the electronic siege an attempt to stifle Russia's last source of free, unfiltered information.
The victims, who range from liberal democrats to ultranationalists, allege their hacker adversaries hope to harass the opposition with the approach of parliamentary elections in December and presidential elections in next March.
Some independent experts agree.
"A huge information war awaits Russia before the elections," said Oleg Panfilov of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations.
The groups claim the attackers use vast, online networks of computers infected with malicious software -- whose owners probably aren't aware they are involved -- to paralyze or erase targeted Web sites.
Stanislav Belkovsky, a political analyst believed to have close ties to Kremlin insiders, said a senior associate of President Vladimir Putin is leading the cyber assault. The government denies it and insists it has nothing to do with the onslaught. The Kremlin said hackers could easily forge Internet Protocol addresses registered to government offices.
Belkovsky, founder of the Moscow-based National Strategy Institute, said the Kremlin is upset that it has been unable to control the political content of online media. "The Kremlin can't just tell their editors to remove an unwanted publication," he said.
The attacks are similar to assaults -- sometimes a million computers-strong -- unleashed in April and early May against Web sites in Estonia. Officials there say waves of attacks crashed dozens of government, corporate and media Web sites in one of Europe's most wired societies.
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