If you follow world politics, you may have heard that Vladimir Putin is back in charge as president of Russia. The former president turned prime minister turned president again has caused quite a bit of stir within the country with many people protesting what they feel was a rigged election.

In solidarity with the protest movement, the Russian branch of Anonymous attacked and took down the Kremlin’s Web site according to The Moscow Times. The attack took place at 11 a.m. on Wednesday as part of a new campaign called #OpDefiance

kremlin.ru – TANGO DOWNhost-tracker.com/check_res_ajx/…i.imgur.com/ukzm8.png#OpDefiance #Anonymous #d4th #DDoS #WIN

— Op_Russia (@Op_Russia) May 9, 2012

A representative for the Kremlin said that they knew about the attacks and were ready for them. Unlike a lot of governmental agencies that only start to take Anonymous seriously after they’re attacked, it would appear that Russia has been prepared. The representative said, “They are serious attacks, but the expertise of our professionals is no joke.”

The reason behind the Russian government being ready for such attacks is that Putin has been a long time target of Anonymous actions. We reported back in February on an Anonymous operation that leaked emails from a pro-Putin group. The emails suggested that Putin was using his power to attack enemies of his political agenda while paying off newspapers to give him positive coverage.

Here’s the video Anonymous put together announcing #OpDefiance. If you want to follow the exploits of Anonymous operations in Russia, the official Twitter account appears to be @Op_Russia. There are other Russian Anonymous accounts, but this one seems to get the news of takedowns first.

We’ll keep you updated on any further Anonymous activities. The attacks in Russia are probably not over and won’t be for a while. Putin is relatively unpopular in the country so things might get interesting in the coming days.