Germany Summons Russian Envoy Over Surge in Cyberattacks

Germany’s foreign ministry summoned the Russian ambassador in Berlin and said it made it clear there’ll be consequences for hybrid attacks backed by the government in Moscow aimed at undermining democracy.

“We have observed a massive increase in threatening hybrid activities by Russia for some time,” ministry spokesman Martin Giese said Friday at the regular government news conference in Berlin.

“These range from disinformation campaigns and espionage to cyberattacks and attempted acts of sabotage,” Giese said, adding that the German government had clear evidence of the involvement of Russia’s GRU military-intelligence agency in two specific incidents.

These were a 2024 cyberattack on Germany’s air-traffic control system by a hacker group known as “Fancy Bear,” and interference in February’s election and other domestic affairs by a campaign dubbed “Storm 1516.”

Together with its European partners, Germany would be taking “a series of countermeasures to make Russia pay a price for its hybrid actions,” Giese said, including new sanctions on individuals such as travel bans and freezing of assets.

The Russian embassy in Berlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

German authorities were able to attribute two significant social-media campaigns to Russia by tracking financial transactions and communication and in some cases there were direct links to the GRU, German officials said in a separate briefing Friday.

Between July 2024 and July this year, 10 cases were investigated, including videos about a supposed romantic affair involving former Greens Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, said the officials, who asked not to be identified in line with briefing rules.

Other cases probed were claims that the current conservative chancellor, Friedrich Merz, was treated for psychological problems in a clinic or that he shot baby polar bears in Canada.

Many of the posts are still available on platforms like X because in most cases they do not constitute a criminal act, the officials said.