Hackers Seize Russian Prime Minister's Twitter Account
As sneaky as Russia's spooks are, they couldn't keep hackers from commandeering the Twitter account of Dmitri Medvedev, Russia's former president and current prime minister, and tweeting a mock resignation and sundry other jokes in the longtime Putin ally's name.
It was the work of "Russian hacking collective" Shaltay-Boltay (which is apparently Russian for Humpty-Dumpty), according to the BBC:
The Russian-language feed, which has more than 2.5 million followers, was also filled with tweets denouncing the country's president, Vladimir Putin.
The impersonator wrote that Mr Medvedev would be pursuing a new career as a freelance photographer.
Dmitry Medvedev on twitter: "I'm resigning. I'm shamed by the actions of the govt. Forgive me." Nice work, hackers. pic.twitter.com/r7D2iYrBDd
— Oliver Carroll (@olliecarroll) August 14, 2014
The hackers also weighed in on the Ukraine crisis through Medvedev's account:
Today, #Medvedev's account was hacked. One of the tweets was "#Crimea is not ours, please retweet". #Russia pic.twitter.com/giHtbG1PKu
— Jelena Prtoric (@yellena_p) August 14, 2014
Shaltay-Boltay, which claims to be allied with Anonymous, has been a pain in Russia's double-eagled butt for some time, publicly dumping private emails from Kremlin insiders and pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine.
According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the hackers tweeted a bunch of other stuff from Medvedev's account, including a bitchy message for President Vladimir Putin, using his diminutive nickname.
"Been wanting to say this for a long time," the tweet read. "Vova, you're wrong!"
[Photo credit: AP Images]