By Bond Robertson 
Somewhere between every 10 to 20 minutes, the servers of the independent Russian newspaper Meduza are blacked out.
Internet traffic can suddenly increase by about 200 times. Unknown users challenge avisa's payment systems by entering false credit information.
This is what the newspaper itself claims. According to Meduza, there are targeted campaigns by the Russian authorities.
Avisa claims it is facing the most intense cyber attack campaign ever.
– Our technology team has never faced threats of this magnitude before, he writes On their websites this week.
– Preparing for nuclear war
– Expected tactics
Military expert Tormod Heyer describes this strategy as a predictable strategy on Russia's part.
This is an expected tactic, Heyer, a professor of military strategy and operations at the Norwegian Armed Forces College (FHS), tells Dagbladet.
The newspaper says that the cyber attack began at approximately the same time with the death of opposition politician Alexei Navalny.
– Such cyber attacks contribute in part to preventing the dissemination of information that could reinforce basic lines of conflict in civil society, which in turn would be dangerous for a country concerned with internal stability when the country is in a deep foreign policy crisis, Heyer says. .
The last thing Russia needs, then, is a vibrant civil society that challenges the legitimacy of the current regime.
He refuses to answer
– Clear signal
Meduza constantly took copies of its original website onto so-called mirror servers, which Russian authorities repeatedly tracked down and blocked.
Journalists claim that Russia has increased the level of threats, censorship and sabotage against newspapers.
They talk about creative methods. Among other things, Avisa noticed an increase in the number of subscribers to its Telegram channel.
These new followers may be part of a plan to mass report the channel for alleged violations of Telegram's terms of use, the newspaper wrote.
– Although we have no direct evidence, we believe that this campaign is an attempt to completely destroy Medusa. One of many attempts, but very aggressive, the newspaper wrote.
They claim to attack Russia
– Polarized
The military expert believes that the alleged cyber attacks are part of Russia's recruitment of patriots and conscripts for the army.
There is no doubt that the Kremlin will face problems recruiting, mobilizing and equipping more well-trained military forces in the coming years. Consequently, the fragmented and polarized domestic political landscape is viewed by the Kremlin as humiliating, destabilizing, and dangerous to the privileges of the country's elite.
The professor believes that Russian intelligence services have the ability to destroy the newspaper's digital infrastructure and that this is what they are threatening to do.
This tactic sends a clear signal to Medusa's editors that if you don't stop, you might also risk more damage, says Heyer.
– He won't hold us back
Meduza fears that the Russian authorities will completely shut down the Internet before the next presidential elections. They claim they will still be able to send emergency messages to readers in Russia via email, if everything else is blocked.
“We expect to see similar or even larger attacks during Putin’s next elections,” Meduza writes:
– We will not allow the Russian authorities to prevent us from giving the truth to our readers.