Germany has summoned the Russian ambassador after accusing Moscow of carrying out a cyber-attack on the country\u2019s air traffic control systems and attempting to interfere in its federal elections. The allegations mark a fresh escalation in tensions between Berlin and Moscow, which have sharply deteriorated since Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for Germany\u2019s foreign ministry said on Friday that Russian military intelligence was responsible for a \u201ccyber-attack against German air traffic control in August 2024\u201d. He also accused the Kremlin of orchestrating a broader effort to \u201cinfluence and destabilise\u201d Germany\u2019s February 2025 federal election.<\/p>\n
According to German intelligence assessments, the attack has been traced to Fancy Bear, a well-known Russian hacking group linked to the GRU. Although Germany\u2019s air navigation service later confirmed its office communication system was breached, it stressed that flight operations were not affected.<\/p>\n
Berlin also accused Moscow of running a coordinated disinformation campaign, known as Storm 1516, which targeted senior politicians during the election period. The campaign reportedly involved fake videos alleging ballot manipulation and focused heavily on Green Party candidate Robert Habeck and CDU candidate Friedrich Merz, who is now chancellor.<\/p>\n
Russia, however, has \u201ccategorically rejected\u201d the allegations. In a statement to AFP, the Russian embassy in Berlin said claims of state involvement in cyber-attacks were \u201cbaseless, unfounded and absurd\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe accusations of Russian state structures\u2019 involvement in these incidents and in the activities of hacker groups in general are baseless, unfounded and absurd,\u201d Russia\u2019s embassy in Berlin said in the statement .<\/p>\n
The foreign ministry in Germany said that Berlin \u2013 in close co-ordination with its European partners \u2013 would respond with counter-measures to make Russia \u201cpay a price for its hybrid actions\u201d.<\/p>\n
Germany says it is working closely with European partners and intends to impose counter-measures to ensure Russia \u201cpays a price for its hybrid actions\u201d. The accusations mirror similar warnings from the UK and Romania, both of which have cited attempts by Moscow to meddle in their internal affairs, including targeting organisations providing support to Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Fancy Bear has previously been linked to several high-profile cyber-attacks, including the leak of World Anti-Doping Agency data and the 2016 breach of the US Democratic National Committee.<\/p>\n
The latest claims come against a backdrop of long-standing tensions between the two nations. Even before the war in Ukraine, relations were strained by incidents such as the 2019 killing of a Chechen exile in Berlin\u2019s Tiergarten Park, for which Germany blamed a Russian national acting on state orders.<\/p>\n
Chancellor Merz has repeatedly accused Russia of waging cyber warfare against Germany and has backed efforts to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine\u2019s defence.<\/p>\n
Moscow has not yet formally responded to the latest allegations, but it has consistently denied accusations of sabotage or hybrid attacks across Europe.<\/p>\n
Melissa Enoch<\/p>\n
Follow us on:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Germany has summoned the Russian ambassador after accusing Moscow of carrying out a cyber-attack on the country\u2019s air…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824],"class_list":{"0":"post-629044","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-germany"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115708955392672764","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}