Smart people are not needed

The largest independent Internet platform in Novgorod, the Forum of Smart People (FUL), sent an open letter to city residents in which it accuses the local authorities of pressure. FUL administrators attribute the recent “numerous and powerful” DDoS attacks on the resource to “an independent position that may not please the candidate for governor of the Novgorod region, the current acting head of the regional administration, Sergei Gerasimovich Mitin.” The letter notes that pressure had occurred before, which prompted the administrators back in January to “change localization by moving outside the Russian Federation.” In addition, the forum administration was repeatedly contacted “with a request to remove compromising material from the site for a fee, to “ban” its authors and to further counteract the posting of compromising material on the current government.” Having received a refusal, the “customers of the crimes,” according to the authors of the letter, launched a new wave of attacks.

Forum administrators believe that the main reason for the recent attacks was the publication on FUL of excerpts from the campaign strategy for the election of the governor of the Novgorod region.