Hackers delay Vladimir Putin’s opening speech at Russia’s version of Davos

Hackers on Friday halted the start of Vladimir Putin’s opening speech to the St Petersburg conference dubbed ‘Russia’s version of Davos,’ as part of ongoing cyberwar between Russia and Ukraine.

The Russian president’s opener was held up for more than an hour, after pro-Ukrainian hacktivists overloaded the St Petersburg International Economic Forum’s (SPIEF’s) servers with false requests.

The hack comes as part of an ongoing cyberwar between Russia and Ukraine, as pro-Ukrainian “hacktivists” later took responsibility for the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. 

Following the initial 100 minute long delay, Putin told the 25th iteration of the annual summit in St Petersburg that he plans to continue his “special military operation” in Ukraine, in the face of Western sanctions.

First launched in 1997, previous iterations of the St Petersburg forum had sought to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) into Russian following the collapse of the USSR.