Germany has accused Russia of a cyber attack on air traffic control and attempted election interference and summoned the Russian ambassador.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Russian military intelligence was behind a “cyber attack on German air traffic control in August 2024.” The spokesman also accused Russia of wanting to influence and destabilize the federal election in February this year.
The latest allegations come amid heightened concerns in Europe about suspected Russian cyberattacks since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Russia has “categorically rejected” the claims and said alleged involvement in such incidents was “absurd.”
“The allegations of involvement of Russian state structures in these incidents and in the activities of hacker groups in general are unfounded, baseless and absurd,” the Russian embassy in Berlin said in a statement to the AFP news agency.
Germany’s foreign ministry said Berlin – in close coordination with its European partners – would respond with countermeasures to make Russia “pay a price for its hybrid actions.”
Last year both the United Kingdom And Romania have accused Russia of interfering in their internal affairs, including against organizations providing foreign aid to Ukraine and presidential elections.
The spokesman said the cyberattack on Germany in August 2024 could be attributed to the Russian hacker group Fancy Bear.
“Our intelligence shows that the Russian military intelligence agency GRU is responsible for this attack,” he added.
The ministry spokesman added that it was now certain that Moscow had attempted to “influence and destabilize both the last federal election and the ongoing internal affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany” through a disinformation campaign called Storm 1516.
The election campaign focused, among other things, on the Green Party’s top candidate, Robert Habeck, and the CDU’s top candidate, Friedrich Merz, who is now Chancellor.
The federal government said security agencies identified fake videos alleging vote-rigging as part of a disinformation effort by Russia just days before the election.
His air traffic control provider confirmed that his office communications were hacked in August 2024. Flights were not affected, it said.
Fancy Bear is said to have existed before World Anti-Doping Agency data leakedand played a Key role in the 2016 cyber attack according to security experts at the US Democratic National Committee.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has led to a significant deterioration in relations between Berlin and Moscow.
Germany has become one of Ukraine’s most vocal supporters, providing military, financial and diplomatic support to Kiev.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz has urgently called for frozen Russian assets to be used to protect Ukraine.
He has also repeatedly accused Russia of cyber warfare against his country.
But even before the Russian invasion, relations had been strained for years.
In 2019, an ethnic Chechen was killed in broad daylight in Berlin’s Tiergarten by a Russian citizen, Vadim Krasikov. Germany later expelled two Russian diplomats as prosecutors suspected he was acting on orders from Russia’s state security service.
Although Moscow has not yet responded to the latest allegations, it has previously rejected European allegations of a Russian sabotage or hybrid campaign.
