Calls for Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin to resign and drop his presidential bid flooded his campaign website within minutes of its unveiling today, prompting administrators to limit public access.
Mr Putin's spokesman and campaign official Dmitry Peskov said the website fell victim to a hacker attack in its early hours and some of the anti-Putin messages were spam. He denied that any messages were blacklisted for political reasons.
"All this fuss with calls for resignation is a kind of computer game that children are playing at. It has nothing to do with constructive dialogue," Mr Peskov said.
Mr Putin also unveiled his draft programme for the March presidential poll, which acknowledged Russians' desire for faster change but barely touched on issues such as corruption and political reform, the subject of many voters' complaints.
Mr Putin faced the biggest rallies of his 12-year rule last month when tens of thousands of people, many affluent and educated city dwellers, took to the streets to protest against alleged fraud in the December 4th parliamentary election.
Mr Putin remains Russia's most popular and influential politician, but his popularity has been declining since he decided last September to return to the Kremlin after a four-year stint as prime minister.
"Vladimir Vladimirovich, I suggest that you do not turn the situation into a revolution and resign from the post of prime minister and also take your candidacy off the presidential race," read a message posted by Svetlana Sorokina.
"Leave politics, please. It is obvious that power is like a drug but it would be a decent move," wrote Andrei Antinenko.
Many of the messages were taken off the public website but retained their public Internet links. They were then quickly discovered by journalists and bloggers who posted blacklisted messages on their websites. Anti-Putin messages accounted for at least one third of all the messages posted on the site before access was blocked.
"You have been in power for twelve years. It is enough. Everything you could do, you already did. One should not rule for ever. The country will not survive another term of your presidency," read one of the blacklisted messages.
Some pro-Putin messages contained calls for censorship of media and the Internet and a ban on foreign funding for non-governmental organisations. Many were complaints about local bureaucrats not doing their jobs properly.
Reuters