A shadowy group claiming to be Ukrainian hackers said they penetrated the computer system of one of Russian president Vladimir Putin's top aides and made off with over one gigabyte of sometimes embarrassing emails detailing some of Russia's secrets in its war on Ukraine.

The group calling itself CyberHunta hacked into the account of an assistant to presidential aide Vladislav Surkov and uploaded over 2,000 emails this week.

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CyberHunta said it had broken into the email account of Surkov, Putin's chief adviser on Ukraine and had published two documents online. One of these documents is about Surkov's plans for destabilizing Ukraine over the next three months and a second on forming a Trans-Carpathian "republic."

The first document is 15 pages long and lists a series of steps Russia should take between November 2016 and March 2017 to destabilize Ukraine and provoke new parliamentary and presidential elections.

Among the steps listed are talks with Ukrainian opposition parties to organize protests in the form of a "Customs Maidan" in the second half of November.

Some western analysts claim CyberHunta might be a CIA proxy and that this episode might mark the beginning of "proxy cyberwars" between the U.S. and Russia. Russia has been conducting a proxy cyberwar against the U.S. for decades, giving it the excuse to deny any direct involvement in any hacking incident.

A Russian politician of Chechen descent, Surkov is widely considered as the main ideologist of the Kremlin. It was Surkov who proposed and implemented the concept of sovereign democracy in Russia in 2006.

According to Surkov, sovereign democracy is "a society's political life where the political powers, their authorities and decisions are decided and controlled by a diverse Russian nation for the purpose of reaching material welfare, freedom and fairness by all citizens, social groups and nationalities, by the people that formed it."

Political analysts see sovereign democracy as the modern resurrection of communism in that it gives absolute state power to the dominant political party, in this case Putin's United Russia party.

From December 2011 until May 2013 Surkov served as the Russian Federation's Deputy Prime Minister.  After his resignation, Surkov returned to the Presidential Executive Office and became a personal adviser of Putin on relationships with Ukraine, Abkhasia and South Ossetia.

Surkov's hacked emails include a June 2014 list of casualties from the separatist Donetsk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine. Another email that same month listed expenses to set up its Ministry of Information.

The leaked emails are embarrassing because Putin has consistently denied any connection to the separatists, whether militarily or financially.

Russian-backed rebels in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions proclaimed their independence from Ukraine two years ago and have sought to join Russia. They've established their own "states" with Putin's backing.

The Kremlin dismissed the emails as fake, saying (incredibly) that Surkov doesn't email. Ukraine's National Security Service, however, confirmed the emails are genuine.

The hacks by CyberHunta followed a threat made by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden that the U.S. will be "sending a message" that Putin will recognize.

"He'll know it," said Biden.

"And it will be at the time of our choosing. And under the circumstances that have the greatest impact."

U.S. intelligence agencies are planning for unprecedented cyber covert actions against Russia.

TagsCyberHunta, Ukraine, hachers, Cyber Attack, Vladislav Surkov, Vladimir Putin, sovereign democracy