Programme descriptions on the digital schedules for several major Russian television networks were changed to an anti-war message during the annual Victory Day parade on Monday. The schedules were apparently hacked, although there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

In every time slot on some online schedules and many televisions’ electronic program guides for Channel 1, for example, one of the main state-run channels, the names of the programmes had all been changed to: “On your hands is the blood of thousands of Ukrainians and hundreds of their murdered children. TV and the authorities are lying. No to war,” according to BBC Monitoring.

Viewers of three cable suppliers reported that their schedules had been hacked, according to Tass, a state-run news agency, quoting media reports. Rostelecom, one of the suppliers, said the alteration was being investigated to try to prevent it from happening again, the Tass article said.

Yandex, the Russian equivalent of Google, was not showing program information for Channel 1 and Rossiya 1, two major channels.

Yandex denied that it had been hacked, telling Tass that it had been told by providers that the information it was displaying was incorrect and was taken down for that reason.

New York Times News Service