Russian Media Hack Hits During Putin Speech

Russian state websites streaming President Vladimir Putin's much publicized speech on Tuesday went offline during his address, according to Russian state media.

Putin's annual State of the Nation speech, which began around 12 p.m. local time, was due to be live-streamed on several Russian state media platforms.

But a report of "technical work" appeared on the website of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) during the speech, according to Russian state media outlet, Tass. VGTRK operates many of Russia's key state TV broadcasts.

The website used for broadcasting the state-run Rossiya-24 channel, Smotrim.ru, was reported as down by a group claiming to work on behalf of Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny.

The website for state media's Channel 1 was only "working intermittently," the group said in a tweet, claiming responsibility for the disruption along with "other hackers."

In a separate tweet, the group again claimed there had been "attacks" on the websites, including from members of its organization.

The state-run RIA Novosti news agency said the disruption was down to a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, according to Reuters. A DDoS attack was also cited by the group claiming links to Navalny.

However, it has not been confirmed what or which organization was behind the websites failing to broadcast the speech.

This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.