Surkov leaks participant Vladislav Surkov
In October 2016, Ukrainian hacker group CyberHunta leaked over a gigabyte of emails and other documents alleged to belong to Russian political operative and senior Kremlin official Vladislav Surkov. Known as Russia's "grey cardinal", Surkov served as a political adviser to President Vladimir Putin in the conflict in eastern Ukraine and is the architect of Russia's ideology of sovereign democracy.The document leak included over 2,300 emails from Surkov's inbox. The emails illustrate Russian plans to politically upset Ukraine and the coordination of affairs with major opposition leaders in separatist east Ukraine. The release included a document sent to Surkov by Denis Pushilin, former Chairman of the People's Council of the Donetsk People's Republic, listing casualties that occurred during 2014. It also included a 22-page outline of "a plan to support nationalist and separatist politicians and to encourage early parliamentary elections in Ukraine, all with the aim of undermining the government in [Kyiv]."The Kremlin has said that the leaked documents are fake.