A foreign ministry spokesman said German security services had proof that hacker groups run by Russia\u2019s military intelligence service GRU were responsible for the attacks and influence operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cBased on comprehensive analysis by the German intelligence services, we have been able to clearly identify the handwriting behind it and prove Moscow\u2019s responsibility,\u201d said the spokesman.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can now clearly attribute the cyberattack against German Air Safety in August 2024 to the hacker collective APT28, also known as Fancy Bear,\u201d he told a regular press briefing.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur intelligence findings prove that the Russian military intelligence service GRU bears responsibility for this attack,\u201d added the spokesman.<\/p>\n
He also said Russia had sought to influence February\u2019s parliamentary election, which was won by the conservatives of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, with the far-right AfD scoring its best-ever result in second place.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecond, we can now state definitively that Russia, through the Storm 1516 campaign, sought to influence and destabilise the most recent federal election,\u201d he added at a press conference.<\/p>\n
The spokesman said a GRU-supported Moscow think tank and other groups had spread artificially generated or deepfake images and other content, and that the goal was to divide society and \u201cundermine trust in democratic institutions\u201d.<\/p>\n
– \u2018Pay a price\u2019 –<\/p>\n
The spokesman said Germany had \u201cabsolutely solid proof\u201d that Russia was behind the operations but added that he could not go into detail because this would involve discussing the work of German intelligence services.<\/p>\n
Contacted by AFP, the Russian embassy in Berlin declined to immediately comment on the allegations.<\/p>\n
The German ministry spokesman also warned that Berlin would take \u201ca series of countermeasures to make Russia pay a price for its hybrid actions, in close coordination with our European partners\u201d.<\/p>\n
Germany would support \u201cnew individual sanctions against hybrid actors on a European level\u201d, he said, without saying who they were.<\/p>\n
He added that from January, EU countries would \u201cmonitor cross-border travel by Russian diplomats within the Schengen Area. The aim is to facilitate better information exchange and minimise intelligence risks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Governments across Europe are on high alert over alleged Russian espionage, drone surveillance and sabotage activities, as well as cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns.<\/p>\n
Germany has been Ukraine\u2019s second-biggest supplier of aid since Russia launched its 2022 full-scale invasion and has accused Moscow of being behind drone flights near several European airports in recent months.<\/p>\n
German Merz has argued that the drone flights were evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin was trying to unsettle the continent with \u201chybrid attacks\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is Russia that is trying to destabilise us in Germany and in Europe ever more ruthlessly with hybrid methods of war,\u201d Merz said in October. \u201cWe will defend ourselves against them now and in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
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