Brutal Russian thug and war criminal Vladimir Putin thought it would be a good idea to "celebrate" his illegal seizure of Ukrainian Crimea eight years ago today. So he staged a rally at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow with a crowd of thousands of flag-waving state employees, and continued to spew his obvious lies about Ukraine's fantastical "Nazification" under its Jewish president, and Russia's need to protect ethnic Russians there. But Putin's video feed was cut off mid-sentence by what officials there called a "technical glitch."
It was curious, but welcome, that his delusional rant would be cut short, but news of hackers staging a massive assault on Russia's government websites might have had something to do with it, too:
"Wednesday evening, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry website was defaced by hackers, who altered its content. Notably, the hack replaced the department hotline with a number for Russian soldiers to call if they want to defect from the army — under the title 'Come back from Ukraine alive.'
Top news items on the ministry’s front page were changed to 'Don’t believe Russian media — they lie' and 'Default in Russia is near,' along with a link offering 'full information about the war in Ukraine.'” (our emphasis)
Given Russia's demonstration of its military incompetence in the past three weeks, it's not hard to imagine a video feed provided by the Russian government would be sabotaged by a smart hacker or two. If that was the case, much more please.
BONUS: A BBC reporter interviewed dozens of attendees who said they were required to attend. Many said they opposed the war, but were fearful of reprisals.
(photo: Pulling the plug on Vlad. Sputnik photo via AP)
