St. Petersburg deputies began mass-deleting or renaming their VKontakte pages and Telegram channels on the evening of August 4, the outlet Rotonda reported. State Duma deputy Vitaly Milonov renamed his channel to "Vitaly, the choice of millions," while the channel of Legislative Assembly deputy Alexei Tsivilev is now called "Transport of St. Petersburg."
The name changes were not limited to United Russia members. The channel of New People deputy Dmitry Pavlov is now called "For St. Petersburg," and Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) parliamentarian Andrei Malkov renamed his channel to "Forward, for St. Petersburg." Deputies also removed their photos from the channels.
Speaker of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly Alexander Belsky deleted his Telegram channel, VKontakte page, and Max channel. Deputies Mikhail Baryshnikov, Valery Garnets, and Alexander Khodosok also deleted their VK profiles.
One deputy who renamed his channel told Rotonda on condition of anonymity that he received a call from Moscow asking him to "detach all social networks," citing a possible "attack" before the elections. According to the outlet's source, they simply called and told him to do it without much explanation.
Belsky said a "series of coordinated attacks" had been recorded on deputies' accounts. He said the lawmakers deleted or renamed their pages to prevent attackers from publishing false information in their names. The publication did not specify which accounts were actually hacked.
Supporters of New People candidate for the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly and State Duma Yuri Kulikov linked the events to their client's case. In late July, a court revoked his election registration because the deputy failed to credit the authorship of music in one of his social media videos. According to Kulikov's representatives, the court ruling in their case created a threat to all digital campaigning in St. Petersburg.