FILE — Russian ambassador in Germany Sergey Nechayev, center, attends a wreath laying ceremony to commemorate the end of World War II 77 years ago at the Soviet War Memorial at the district Treptow in Berlin, Germany, May 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)
Germany summoned Russia's ambassador on Friday after accusing Moscow of orchestrating sabotage, a series of cyberattacks and targeted efforts to interfere in German elections, a government official said.
At a government briefing, German Foreign Ministry spokesperson Martin Giese said Berlin had evidence pointing to state-linked Russian actors behind recent disruptive operations aimed at undermining public trust and democratic institutions.
"The goal of these Russian cyber and disinformation attacks is clear: It is to divide society, stir up mistrust, provoke rejection, and weaken confidence in democratic institutions," Giese said.
The ministry identified the Russian military intelligence service, the GRU, as responsible for a 2024 cyberattack on Germany's air-traffic control system. German officials say the operation was carried out by the hacker collective APT28 (also known as Fancy Bear), a group linked to the GRU and sanctioned by multiple countries.
Officials also told reporters that investigators believe the GRU tried to destabilize and influence Germany's most recent federal election in February through a campaign dubbed "Storm 1516." According to Giese, intelligence services found that the campaign distributed artificially generated pseudo-investigative material, deepfake image sequences, pseudo-journalistic websites, and fabricated witness statements across multiple online platforms.
Moscow did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday. German officials reiterated that these actions form part of a broader pattern of hybrid-warfare tactics used to destabilize European democracies.
Giese warned that Germany would respond with a series of countermeasures. "The German government condemns the repeated and unacceptable attacks by state-controlled Russian actors in the strongest possible terms. We will continue to strengthen our support for Ukraine and our deterrence and defense," he said.
The diplomatic summons came as European Union leaders prepared measures to freeze Russian assets held in Europe until Moscow ends its war in Ukraine and agrees to compensate Kyiv for the extensive damage from nearly four years of conflict. That measure would also allow EU states to consider using tens of billions of euros in Russian central-bank assets to underwrite a large loan to support Ukraine's financial and military needs over the next two years.
