Vladimir Putin's State Of The Union Speech Interrupted By 'Major Hack' Causing Streaming Blackout
Feb. 21 2023, Published 6:00 p.m. ET
During Vladimir Putin's State of the Union address on Tuesday, online state TV airing the speech experienced a "major hack" that caused a streaming blackout. However, the Kremlin quickly swept the incident under the rug and credited "technical work" for the disruption, RadarOnline.com has learned.
The address came as the Ukraine/Russia conflict nears the one-year mark this week — and amid heightened fears that Putin, 70, would ramp up his deranged war efforts and launch an attack on Western Europe.
While the 70-year-old Kremlin leader addressed parliament members, web streams from major channels — that were controlled by the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) — were disrupted by a blackout.
Instead of watching Putin, as he alleged that Western powers actually started the war in Ukraine to gain "limitless power," viewers at home were shown a black screen that featured two bizarre messages.
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First a message that read "Mistake 500" appeared on the hacked web links. Then, a message that stated "technical works" appeared.
While the Kremlin did not immediately confirm that the state tv channels were hacked, the problem appeared to be widespread and was reported across all 11 of Russia's timezones.
According to the Daily Mail, state-run news agency RIA Novosti stated that the outage was the result of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.
Putin's speech was highly anticipated as viewers around the world feared an escalation of violence from the ruthless leader, who has become increasingly paranoid amid his deteriorating health condition and failures on the front lines.
A segment of the Kremlin leader's speech that was aired accused the United States and Western allies of facilitating the attack on unprovoked Ukraine.
"We were doing everything possible to solve this problem peacefully, negotiating a peaceful way out of this difficult conflict, but behind our backs a very different scenario was being prepared," Putin told parliament.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
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Putin's claim that Western powers were to blame for the senseless carnage in Ukraine, came as President Biden made an unprecedented trip to the war-torn country and met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
US national security advisor Jake Sullivan reflected on Putin's wild accusation and said there's "a kind of absurdity in the notion that Russia was under some form of military threat from Ukraine or anyone else."
