Germany on Friday accused Russia of a cyber attack aimed at controlling air traffic and spreading disinformation ahead of February’s general election, accusations Moscow dismissed as “absurd” and “baseless”.
A spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry said security services had evidence that hacking groups controlled by Russia’s GRU military intelligence service were responsible for the attack and influence operations.
“Based on a comprehensive analysis by German intelligence services, we were able to clearly identify the ‘handwriting’ and prove Moscow’s responsibility,” the spokesman said.
He specified that the cyber attack on German air security in August 2024 can be safely attributed to the hacker collective APT28, also known as Fancy Bear.
The spokesman added that Russia also sought to influence parliamentary elections in February, which were won by Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives, while the far-right AfD party achieved its best result to date and came in second.
“We can now claim with full certainty that Russia, through the ‘Storm 1516’ campaign, sought to influence and destabilize the last federal elections,” the spokesman said.
According to him, Moscow, with the support of the GRU, used think-tanks and other groups to spread artificially generated or deepfake content, with the aim of dividing society and ‘undermining trust in democratic institutions.’
In a statement, the Russian embassy in Berlin “categorically rejected” that Russia was responsible for any activities.
“Allegations of the involvement of Russian state structures and hacker groups in these incidents are baseless, unfounded and absurd,” the statement said.
According to security sources, materials disseminated through the Storm 1516 campaign often referred to baseless claims about Merz and other politicians such as former foreign minister Annalene Baerbock and former vice chancellor Robert Habeck, both prominent members of the Green Party.
Germany’s AFP Fact Check service refuted two of the campaign’s claims, including that the AfD was removed from the Leipzig ballot and that votes for the party in Hamburg were destroyed before being counted.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized that Germany has “absolutely solid evidence” of Russia’s responsibility, but could not provide details due to the protection of the work of German intelligence services.
The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency BfV, Sinan Selen, said the Storm-1516 campaign clearly shows how Germany’s democratic order is under attack.
– This system of disinformation includes pro-Russian influencers with a large reach, conspiracy theories and extreme right-wing circles – Selen said.
A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry warned that Berlin would take “a series of countermeasures to make Russia pay the price for its hybrid actions, in close coordination with European partners.”
Germany will support “new individual sanctions against hybrid actors at the European level,” without naming the actors.
(Vijesti.ba)
