Perhaps it's the equivalent of April Fools Day in Russia, as Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev found his Twitter account had been hacked.
There is no truth to any rumors that the hacker was his boss, Vladimir Putin, although Putin is quite the jovial sort as we all know.
There were a series of fake tweets falsely attributed to Medvedev. The first, which naturally set off a conflagration, was that he was resigning his position:
"I am resigning. I am ashamed of the government's actions. I'm sorry," tweeted not really Medvedev. The PM's office quickly moved to set inquiring minds at ease.
However, the tweets started to arrive on a regular basis. Next up was a tweet in which the hacker writes that Medvedev is quitting to become a freelance photographer (photography is a hobby of the actual Medvedev). This tweet elicited a response from a government press official who said, "The Twitter account of the prime minister was hacked and the recent posts about his resignation and plans to become a freelance photographer are false."
Even as Medvedev's people were issuing denial after denial, the fake PM tweeted the popular Hashtag "KrymNash," meaning "Crimea is ours," accompanied by "Crimea is not ours, please retweet."
Some of the tweets were peppered with off-color language. Most of them were online for about 45 minutes before being wrestled to the ground and removed.
Medvedev's press office said that the incident was being investigated, saying, "The circumstances surrounding the hacking are as yet unknown. All the necessary technical steps have been taken to minimize the consequences of the hacking."
Medvedev, who is sometimes lampooned in Russia for being too acquiescent to Putin, which was reflected in another bogus tweet saying, "I wanted to say this long ago: Vova! (an affectionate version of Putin's first name) You are wrong!"
Medvedev was the target of another profane Twitter hack in late 2011 when he was still President, which was attributed to an administrative technical employee within the Kremlin.
Perhaps the hacker was expressing disappointment over Medvedev signing into law a requirement that users of public Wi-Fi hotspots to provide ID before accessing the Internet, as reported in Tech Times. The new law was issued as part of a gaggle of new laws that serve to suppress free speech on the Internet for citizens and journalists.
It also seems that hacking might be the new Russian national sport, following on the heels about last week's spectacular story about the theft of 1.2 billion usernames and passwords by a Russian hacking ring.
The culprit in this particular case may find someday that even in post-Soviet Russia, you don't hack the government, the government hacks you.
