The attacks are coming from several different botnets, but so far haven t had the desired effect of completely taking the sites offline. The main site of Ufa Journal was accessible Thursday morning but researchers said that the attacks still are ongoing at this point. Politically motivated attacks of this kind have become more common in recent months and years as groups agitating for change in countries such as Syria, Iran, Russia and elsewhere have turned to such tactics to help further their cause. Various groups have attacked their rivals sites and media sites that are sympathetic to causes they themselves don’t support.
Source: https://threatpost.com/ddos-attacks-hit-russian-media-sites-advance-elections-021612/76220/