Germany accuses Russia of 2024 cyber attack and election disinformation campaign

Germany accused Russia of launching a cyberattack on air traffic control and attempting to interfere in elections and summoned its ambassador to Russia.

A State Department spokesman said Russian military intelligence was behind the “cyber attack on German air traffic control in August 2024.”

The spokesman also accused Russia of trying to influence and destabilize the federal elections to be held in the country in February this year.

He said Germany, in close cooperation with its European partners, would respond with countermeasures that would make Russia “pay the price for its hybrid actions.”

There was no immediate response from Russia.

The cyber attack in August 2024 could be attributed to the Fancy Bear Russian hacker group, the spokesperson said.

“Our intelligence findings prove that the GRU, the Russian military intelligence service, bears responsibility for this attack,” he added.

The ministry said it was now confident that Moscow was trying 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.

It was stated that the campaign focused in part on the Green Party’s leading candidate, Robert Habeck, and the CDU’s leading candidate, Friedrich Merz, who is now chancellor.

The German government said security agencies detected fake videos of ballot manipulation just days before the election as part of a Russian disinformation effort.