Germany has summoned the Russian ambassador over a cyberattack and disinformation operation related to the German election campaign, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman has said.
According to the Foreign Ministry spokesman, the cyberattack on the German air traffic control service in August 2024 is attributed to the game-backed Russian hacking group Fancy Bear.
He added that attempts to influence the German election earlier this year were definitely linked to Storm-1516, a pro-Russian influence operation previously seen in the 2024 US presidential election and investigated by US authorities.
“Analyses by our services show that the campaign disseminates artificially generated pseudo-investigations, dipfakes, image sequences, pseudo-journalistic websites and fabricated testimonies on various platforms,” said the spokesman quoted by Reuters.
The German government has repeatedly accused Moscow of widespread cyber attacks. The spokesman said further diplomatic and political measures would have to be approved by the government.
The Russian embassy has so far not commented on these accusations by Berlin. The Kremlin has previously said that European accusations of sabotage or a hybrid campaign are completely unfounded.
In May 2025, intelligence services in Britain and its allies accused a unit of Russia’s GRU intelligence service, known as APT 28 or Fancy Bear, of trying to access CCTV cameras to monitor Western aid flowing into Ukraine and interfere with deliveries.