BERLIN, Aug 5 (Reuters) – Russia is intensifying disinformation campaigns in Germany, German security sources told Reuters, ahead of state elections \u200cin which the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) appears set to \u200cmake major gains.<\/p>\n
Germany is holding elections in Berlin, Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania next month. \u200bPolls suggest the AfD, whose leader has vowed to upend the political consensus and restore German ties with Russia \u2014 largely frozen due to Moscow’s war in Ukraine \u2014 could win a majority and even take power \u200cin the eastern state \u2060of Saxony-Anhalt.<\/p>\n
The Russian campaigns aim to polarise the political climate and discredit the governing conservative CDU party and \u2060its coalition partner, the SPD, as well as the Greens and Free Democratic Party, the sources said.<\/p>\n
Russia’s embassy in Berlin did not immediately respond \u200bto a \u200bReuters request for comment. Moscow has \u200bconsistently denied involvement in disinformation \u200ccampaigns against the West.<\/p>\n
The four security sources, who asked not to be named as they were not authorised to speak publicly on the matter, said German authorities are certain the campaigns are being centrally orchestrated from Russia using a number of companies.<\/p>\n
The campaigns are using \u200csocial media to disseminate videos, mainly in \u200bEnglish, bearing the logos of reputable media \u200boutlets including the BBC \u200band German broadcaster ARD. They contain false accusations against \u200clocal politicians, ranging from allegations of \u200bembezzlement to sexual \u200bharassment and abuse.<\/p>\n
Moscow has regularly faced accusations of election interference.<\/p>\n
The German government warned of a similar Russian-orchestrated disinformation campaign ahead of \u200bfederal parliamentary elections \u200clast year. And recently, Russia was accused of seeking to influence \u200belections in Moldova and Armenia.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Markus Wacket; Writing by \u200bJoe Bavier; Editing by Hugh Lawson)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BERLIN, Aug 5 (Reuters) – Russia is intensifying disinformation campaigns in Germany, German security sources told Reuters, ahead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[18,50367,9353,50364,3439,50365,5,1831,3849,42516,50366],"class_list":["post-67153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-berlin","tag-berlin","tag-campaigns-in-germany","tag-disinformation","tag-elections-in-berlin","tag-free-democratic-party","tag-german-security-sources","tag-germany","tag-russia","tag-saxony-anhalt","tag-security-sources","tag-state-elections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}