Kremlin Has Restored Systems That Were Reportedly Hacked by 'Anonymous'

The Kremlin appears to have restored its website hours after global hackers group "Anonymous" said it took down the site, declaring cyber war.

Nearly three weeks ago, Anonymous declared the technology attack against the Russian Federation to oppose the war on Ukraine. Though it hasn't been confirmed Anonymous is the source of the chaos, the Kremlin's website and other Russian internet sources were offline Wednesday.

Anonymous took to Twitter Wednesday, posting alleged screenshots of the Kremlin's server status, "Kremlin.ru is down for everyone," early Wednesday. Newsweek has confirmed that the Russian government website is now back online.

"Anonymous has ongoing operations to keep .ru government websites offline, and to push information to the Russian people so they can be free of Putin's state censorship machine," the group tweeted. "We also have ongoing operations to keep the Ukrainian people online as best we can."

According to Ukrainian media outlets, Anonymous has hacked over 2,500 Russian government, media and bank websites. The group also claims it has hacked Russian TV channels and security cameras at military bases.

On Tuesday, Ukrinform, a Ukraine media outlet, reported that Anonymous hacked all Russian state TV channels, switching off broadcasts to display videos about the war in Ukraine.

When Anonymous first declared the cyber war February 24, the group said its actions were entirely directed toward Russian President Vladamir Putin and his government.

"Anonymous is currently involved in operations against the Russian Federation," the group posted on Twitter. "Our operations are targeting the Russian government. There is an inevitability that the private sector will most likely be affected too."

Newsweek confirmed that the websites of the Kremlin, Duma, Russian Ministry of Defence and Russian news outlet RT were affected.

RT said Anonymous' cyber attack made some of the websites slow down, and others, including theirs, were taken offline for extended periods of time throughout the day.

Anonymous is a decentralized international hacktivist collective known for cyberattacks primarily against government agencies. It was created in 2003 on the online image-based bulletin board 4chan. The name Anonymous was inspired by the perceived anonymity under which users posted on 4chan, according to Bustle.

The faceless group uses the Guy Fawkes mask as its symbol, styled after one of the ringleaders of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. It was a conspiracy group that planned—and failed—to blow up England's King James I and Parliament.

Newsweek reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment.