{
  "id": 8512309,
  "title": "Russia’s Digital Elections System Creation and Vulnerabilities Disclosed",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/17/russias-digital-elections-system-creation-and-vulnerabilities",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-17T06:00:35.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "iStories (Important Stories)",
    "slug": "istories-important-stories",
    "url": "https://istories.media/en/stories/2026/09/17/russias-digital-elections-system-creation-and-vulnerabilities-disclosed/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In 2026, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with members of Russia's Central Election Commission (TsIK) to discuss the new digital government platform, GAS Vybory 2.0, which would be implemented for the September 18-20 State Duma election. TsIK Chair Ella Pamfilova confirmed that the new system would have domestic data storage capacity and operational subsystems, running autonomously from global networks. Just before the elections, hackers breached Tsifrotek, the company that developed the GAS Vybory 2.0 system, and leaked information to the IStories editorial team. IStories examined nearly 200 gigabytes of technical documentation and assessed the system's transparency. The origins of the GAS Vybory 2.0 system began in 2019, when TsIK sought to replace an outdated platform from the late 1990s. Development was delayed and ultimately cost the state at least 20.5 billion rubles ($250 million) from 2019 to 2025. Despite criticism from electoral law experts, the new system largely replicated the old one, with developers retaining the old stack for compatibility. The Election Commission emphasized the shift to domestically-produced systems as a key principle, although developers questioned the use of foreign software in the system's development.",
  "summary": "How does the internal digital system used in Russian elections operate? The vulnerabilities, the issues and the creation process of the new GAS Vybory 2.0 system have been disclosed due to a successful hacker attack on the system’s developer",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}