Russian state media websites broadcasting President Vladimir Putin’s state-of-the-nation address Tuesday reportedly went down soon after he began his speech. The outage was reported across multiple state-backed TV channels, including All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) website, according to news agency Reuters.
While Reuters could not independently verify the claim, it said that its journalists at multiple locations were unable to access VGTRK – whose website said that “technical works were being carried out”; the Smotrim live-streaming platform also remained inaccessible for periods during the speech.
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The state-run RIA Novosti news agency termed the outage a result of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. State TV channels had previously broadcast a segment on the technical preparations that go into broadcasting the speech and said the live stream would be carried across all major Russian TV channels.
In his speech, Putin accused Western countries of igniting and sustaining the war as he dismissed any blame for Moscow. His speech came almost a year after Russia invaded Ukraine, killing tens of thousands of people.
“We aren’t fighting the Ukrainian people,” Putin said in a speech days before the war’s first anniversary on Friday. Ukraine “I have already said many times that the people of Ukraine have become the hostage of the Kyiv regime and its Western overlords, who have effectively occupied this country in the political, military and economic sense… Today’s Ukrainian regime essentially serves not the national interests but those of third countries.”
Shrugging any blame, Putin said Russia had done everything it could to avoid war, but that Western-backed Ukraine had been planning to attack Crimea, he added.
The West, he said, had let the genie out of the bottle in a host of regions across the world by sowing chaos and war.
(With agency inputs)
