MOSCOW, December 18. /TASS/. Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) is prepared to rebuff hacker attacks during the Russian presidential election on March 18, they cannot affect the course of the vote, the commission’s Deputy Chairman Nikolay Bulyaev informed TASS.

"Cyber attacks against the CEC’s website are a systemic phenomenon, attacks occur with varying degrees of frequency, including on election day. This is the routine work to shield it from interference," he said.

Bulayev noted that he could not recall cases when someone was able to significantly affect the work of the commission’s website.

"We hope that we will be able to cope with these attacks calmly on the election day as well, relying on support from our counterparts from various agencies, and the website will be working steadily. However, the instability of the website itself cannot affect the voting process and the vote count," he stressed.

Russia’s Federation Council (upper house of parliament) earlier scheduled the Russian presidential election for March 18. The election campaign kicked off after the Federation Council published its resolution to call the election on Monday.