Russian WikiLeaks site blocked

MOSCOW, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- Russia's WikiLeaks Web site was blocked after photos of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's purported $1 billion palace were published, officials said Wednesday.

Russian Piracy Party leader Pavel Rassudov said visitors experienced technical problems when they tried to access the site Tuesday after it posted photos of an Italian-style manse on the Black Sea that reportedly belongs to Putin, RIA Novosti reported.

"We are looking into the causes of these problems. We believe this could be due to a DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack," Rassudov said.

The Piracy Party announced last week the creation of "Russian WikiLeaks," RuLeaks.net, inviting users to submit documents related to corruption, criminal coverups and other information. The site's founders said they took precautions about the RuLeaks.net security, such as locating its servers outside of Russia and registering its domain name to a foreign entity, among other things, RIA Novosti said.

A story published in The Washington Post Dec. 23 quoted a Russian whistle-blower as saying the palace was paid for mainly with money donated by Russian businessmen for Putin's use. The whistle-blower said the funds came "mainly through a combination of corruption, bribery and theft."

A spokesman for Putin dismissed the report, saying Putin had nothing to do with the building in question.