MOSCOW – The computer activist group, Anonymous, said Friday it plans to attack sites on the Internet of the Russian government to support opposition protests before the law and President Vladimir Putin.
In an Internet video that has been widespread, the Russian division of the group said it would close the main YouTube page of the Government on Sunday, when protesters plan to hold a march of a million people in central Moscow.
That would be followed by another attack against Prime Minister page on Monday, the day when Putin assumed the presidency, according to the message, which includes instructions on how the Internet can join.
Putin easily won the presidential elections in March for a term of six years, despite a wave of protests started after a parliamentary election in December, that the opposition considers tainted by fraud on a massive scale in favor of the ruling party.
The mass demonstrations in Moscow and other Russian cities did not stop the return of Putin to the presidency, but stripped the former head of the KGB’s aura of invincibility that has characterized his 12 years in power. First, as president and later as Prime Minister .
“On May 6 there will be mass demonstrations against the illegitimate elections. We will support this protest closing pages of the government lying,” Anonymous said in a message on YouTube.
“If you did not choose these authorities and you are against a president that elected himself to be crowned for the third time, join us,” the group added.
The video indicated that Anonymous launched attacks against government page, Government.ru at 09:00 hours from Mexico City on May 6 and against the prime minister’s Web, Premier.gov.ru on May 7 at 04: 00.
Anonymous agreed this year to e-mails from pro-Kremlin youth organization, in what they said was a response to the growing number of attacks by pro-government groups against independent media and opposition bloggers.
Both sides are turning to increasingly accessible technology that can be used for computer attacks, and to find more people willing and able to conduct virtual attacks, according to a recent report by British human rights group OpenDemocracy.
Moscow has called for a binding global treaty at UN to prosecute cyber crime on the Net.
Western countries have been reluctant, but the well-known attacks by hackers like Anonymous groups and LulzSec, pages that have affected U.S. government and Britain, have highlighted the vulnerabilities on the Internet.







