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'I resign' (not really...)

August 14, 2014

Russia's prime minister, who is proudly known as the Kremlin's "tech-savviest politician," suffered a setback on Thursday. Hackers broke into his Twitter account and sent embarrassing tweets to his followers.

https://p.dw.com/p/1Cv0s
Image: Reuters

The first of those humiliating aphorisms was published on Dmitry Medvedev's official Twitter account shortly after 10 am Moscow time (06:00 GMT). It was retweeted thousands of times.

The next message read: "I will become a freelance photographer," a jab at the prime minister's love for landscape photography. And then came: "Crimea is not ours. Please Retweet," making fun of the Russian slogan "Krym Nash" (Crimea is Ours) that could be heard following the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula's annexation by the Kremlin in March.

The last message that made it out before the account's rightful owner regained control was sent to none other than Russian President Vladimir Putin: "I've wanted to say this for ages. Vova! You're wrong!" using the Russian diminutive for Vladimir.

Medvedev faced criticism during and after his presidency from 2008 to 2012 and was accused of being a puppet in the top Russian political seat. Critics said he was merely keeping that seat warm for Putin, who preceeded and followed Medvedev as president.

Following Thursday's Twitter hacking, Medvedev's office announced that the tweets were deleted about one hour after they started appearing.

glb/sb (dpa, Reuters)