A group of pro-Ukrainian hackers took down Russia’s e-court system today

But nobody noticed.

Today, courts across Russia weren’t functioning—but nobody noticed. Which isn’t surprising, because why would you need three branches of government to run a herd?

Since early morning, all court websites under the sudrf.ru domain, the portal for the Judicial Department under the Supreme Court, and the aptly-named-for-Russia “Pravosudie” (Justice) site were all out of order.

A spokesperson for the Judicial Department assured reporters from Mediazona (they’re legit) that everything was working just fine and questioned what all the fuss was about. But one persistent journalist somehow convinced the lady to check the sites herself. Upon seeing that nothing was up and running, she muttered something vague about getting back to them “sometime later.”

Mediazona then tried their luck with the press office of the St. Petersburg courts, but they also claimed to be “in the dark” and suggested calling that wonderful institution “Justice” (Pravosudie). Apparently, Pravosudie has yet to pick up the phone.

If even the judiciary didn’t really notice the outage, it’s unlikely to have any meaningful impact. Still, it’s nice to read the comments from an anonymous source who more or less told reporters the following:

“It’s all linked to the morning cyber attack on VGTRK [the state-owned Russian media holding]. From what I know, everything’s been blown to hell, even the backup copies. It’s a major problem, and it’ll take a hell of a long time to restore.”

So, if you were looking for a reason to raise a glass on Saint Lawyer’s Day—here’s one. Cheers!