A new blog post for Ekho Moskvy makes a startling revelation about the 2007 attacks. The post, by journalist Nargiz Asadova — a columnist for RIA Novosti based in Washington, and an Ekho Moskvy host — describes a March 3 panel discussion between Russian and American experts on information warfare in the 21st century.
Asadova, who was moderating the discussion, asked why Russia is routinely blamed for the cyberattacks in Estonia and Georgia, where government sites were seriously disrupted during the August war.
She might not have been expecting the answer she got from Sergei Markov, a State Duma Deputy from the pro-Kremlin Unified Russia party: “About the cyberattack on Estonia… don’t worry, that attack was carried out by my assistant. I won’t tell you his name, because then he might not be able to get visas.”
Markov, a political analyst who has long been one of Vladimir Putin’s glibbest defenders, went on to explain that this assistant happened to be in “one of the unrecognized republics” during the dispute with Estonia and had decided on his own that “something bad had to be done to these fascists.” So he went ahead and launched a cyberwar.
“Turns out it was purely a reaction from civil society,” Markov reportedly said, adding ominously, “and, incidentally, such things will happen more and more.”
Some extra info:
ReplyDelete"The unnamed assistant is likely to be Konstantin Goloskokov, commissar of the "Nashi" Youth Democratic Anti-Fascist Movement in Moldova and Transnistria, who already admitted to orchestrating the attack and was subsequently banned in 27 countries. In this case, the "unrecognized republic" that Markov spoke of would be Transnistria, a self-governing, separatist region in the Republic of Moldova."
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Two-Years-Old-Cyber-attack-on-Estonia-Again-in-the-Spotlight-106353.shtml
Original post from the radio reporter (in Russian):
http://www.echo.msk.ru/blog/n_asadova/576689-echo/