Russia claims foreign interference in vote

Russia's elections commission said yesterday that it had recorded foreign interference in its ongoing three-day parliamentary elections.

The polls, which culminate today and come after an unprecedented crackdown on Kremlin critics and dissenting voices, allow Russians to cast their ballots online.

The elections commission said that it had recorded "three cyberattacks" on its resources "from foreign countries".

"Yesterday, we recorded three targeted attacks from abroad," said the head of the commission's centre for informatisation, Alexander Sokolchuk.

He said two of the attacks were aimed at the commission's website, while a third was a DDoS attack.

"The attack was quite powerful," the Interfax news agency cited Sokolchuk as saying. He added that "preparations" for further attacks "are underway for tomorrow."

Sokolchuk did not name the countries involved. Russian authorities have previously claimed that Western social media platforms are interfering in its affairs by not removing information related to jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

Navalny, who was detained in February and has seen his organisations banned and his top allies arrested or flee the country, has pushed a "Smart Voting" strategy to defeat Kremlin-aligned politicians in the parliamentary elections.