MOSCOW, March 17. /TASS/. Around 280,000 malicious distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on the electronic voting system have been blocked ever since online voting in the Russian presidential election stared, the chairwoman of the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC), Ella Pamfilova, said.

"All attacks have been blocked by our internal data security systems and data protection provided by Rostelecom and [Russia’s media watchdog] Roskomnadzor. We have coped so far, and we will do so [as the election goes]. There is no doubt about it," Pamfilova said.

Four candidates are running in Russia’s first three-day presidential election on March 15-17, 2024, namely New People party nominee Vladislav Davankov; self-nominated candidate and incumbent President Vladimir Putin; Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) nominee Leonid Slutsky; and Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) nominee Nikolay Kharitonov.