The Surkov leaks

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 26 July 2022

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

In 2016, Ukrainian hackers leaked thousands of emails belonging to Russian President Vladimir Putin's right hand man, Vladislav Surkov. They provided a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the Kremlin and fresh insight into the invasion in Ukraine. Rachel Naylor speaks to Alya Shandra, the journalist who read them all. (Photo: Vladislav Surkov in 2008. Credit: DMITRY ASTAKHOV/AFP/Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and thank you for downloading the witness history podcast from the BBC World Service
0:08.6	with me, Rachel Noeler.
0:10.4	Today I'm going to take you back six years to the moment Ukrainian hackers targeted
0:14.7	Vladimir Putin's right-hand man.
0:17.1	Thousands of Vladislav's circus emails were leaked.
0:20.4	I've been speaking to the journalist who read them all.
0:23.5	It's the 25th of October 2016 and Ukrainian journalist Alia Shandra is at a seminar when
0:32.1	she hears the news about Vladislav Serkov, a key Kremlin official.
0:36.7	His emails have been hacked.
0:38.4	She's shocked and excited.
0:40.6	It just came in in the evening, the news about the hack.
0:43.8	It was quite explosive news at that time, and of course I stayed up almost all night
0:49.0	because I was so fascinated by this hack.
0:51.8	I was thinking that, wow, this is really great.
0:54.2	This is a great victory for Ukrainian cyber resistance.
0:58.2	It really gives unique insight into the Kremlin.
1:01.1	I mean, this is a hack of a Kremlin top official.
1:04.5	And I was extremely happy for it coming out.
1:10.8	A Ukrainian group of hackers leaked over a gigabyte of emails, including more than 2,300 messages
1:16.6	from Vladislav Serkov's inbox.
1:18.2	At the time, Serkov was a political adviser to Russian president Vladimir Putin.
1:26.0	He's been described as the most powerful man you've never heard of.
	...

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