“Vedomosti”: a false air alert on TNT and 2×2 staged via the satellite of “Gazprom”

The false air alert relayed on the airwaves of several Russian television channels on February 28 was due to the interception of a signal from the Yamal-402 satellite, which belongs to the Gazprom Space Systems holding company (belonging to the Gazprom group). On this subject report Vedomosti, citing a source among TV channel partners and close interlocutors of a major satellite TV operator.
An alarm message with a call to seek shelter immediately appeared on the airwaves of TNT4, “Saturday” and 2×2 of the Gazprom-Media holding.
A Gazprom-Media Entertainment Television spokesperson told Vedomosti that the alert was the result of an attack on the satellite operator’s infrastructure. He did not give his name. Vedomosti learned that Gazprom-Media Entertainment Television’s TV channel distribution support service sent a letter to the partners in which it stated that the false alert was due to a “signal change” of the Yamal-402 satellite. , broadcasting at 55 degrees east longitude.
The company’s letter says that now “substitution has been eliminated, but the risk of repeat sabotage is high.”
One of the newspaper’s interlocutors confirmed that the satellite signal had been intercepted “using a powerful antenna from Earth”. According to him, the antenna was located on the territory of Ukraine. It’s impossible to say exactly where the signal interception is coming from, as it’s possible to interrupt the satellite signal this way from anywhere in the device’s coverage area, another source noted. .
Sergey Pekhterev, shareholder of satellite communications operator AlegroSky, said a large antenna with a powerful transmitter was used to replace the signal. According to him, teleports with such stations are located in Russia and neighboring countries. According to information from the Gazprom Space Systems website, the coverage area of ​​Yamal-402 includes the territory of Russia, partly Ukraine, Belarus, Finland and the Baltic countries.
On the morning of February 28, it was reported that in several Russian cities the broadcasting of television channels was interrupted by an emergency message about an “air raid”. The Telegram channel Caution.News wrote that in the Moscow region the message was broadcast on Saturday, TNT4 and 2×2. To the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia declared that following the “hacking of the servers of radio stations and television channels in certain regions of the country, information about the announcement of an air raid alert was broadcast”.A week ago, Russian radio stations broadcast an announcement about an air raid and a threat of a missile launch. The Ministry of Emergency Situations explained this as a hacker attack.