Germany Exposes Russian Cyberattacks on Air Safety Systems and Election Interference Campaign

European governments are increasingly vigilant about suspected Russian espionage activities.

Germany has formally accused Russia of orchestrating a cyberattack on its air traffic control systems and conducting disinformation campaigns ahead of February's general elections. Russia promptly dismissed these allegations as "absurd" and "baseless".

A spokesperson from Germany's foreign ministry stated that intelligence services have conclusive evidence linking hacker groups operated by Russia's GRU military intelligence to both the attack and influence operations.

"Through comprehensive analysis by German intelligence services, we have clearly identified the signature and proven Moscow's responsibility," the spokesperson declared.

"We can now definitively attribute the August 2024 cyberattack against German Air Safety to the hacker collective APT28, also known as Fancy Bear," he stated during a regular press briefing.

"Our intelligence findings confirm that Russia's military intelligence service GRU is responsible for this attack," the spokesperson added.

The spokesperson further alleged that Russia attempted to influence February's parliamentary elections, which saw Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservatives emerge victorious while the far-right AfD secured its best-ever second-place finish.

"We can now state with certainty that Russia, through the Storm 1516 campaign, attempted to influence and destabilize our most recent federal election," he remarked during the press conference.

According to the spokesperson, a GRU-supported Moscow think tank and affiliated groups disseminated artificially generated deepfake images and other content with the objective of dividing society and "undermining trust in democratic institutions".

The Russian embassy in Berlin issued a statement to AFP "categorically rejecting" any Russian involvement in these activities.

"Accusations regarding Russian state structures' involvement in these incidents and in hacker group activities generally are baseless, unfounded and absurd," the statement read.

Security sources indicate that much of the material distributed by the Storm 1516 campaign contained false claims about Chancellor Merz and other prominent politicians, including former foreign minister Annalena Baerbock and former vice chancellor Robert Habeck, both leading members of the Greens party.

AFP's German Fact Check service debunked several claims from the campaign designed to undermine election trust, including false assertions that AfD was omitted from ballots in Leipzig and that votes for the party in Hamburg were destroyed before counting.

The foreign ministry spokesperson emphasized that Germany possessed "absolutely solid proof" of Russia's responsibility but could not elaborate due to intelligence sensitivity concerns.

BfV domestic intelligence agency head Sinan Selen stated, "The 'Storm-1516' campaign demonstrates very concretely how our democratic order is being attacked."

"This disinformation ecosystem encompasses pro-Russian influencers with extensive reach, conspiracy theories, and right-wing extremist circles," Selen explained.

Germany's foreign ministry warned that Berlin would implement "a series of countermeasures to make Russia pay a price for its hybrid actions, in close coordination with our European partners".

Germany would advocate for "new individual sanctions against hybrid actors at the European level," without specifying targets.

The spokesperson added that beginning in January, EU countries would "monitor cross-border travel by Russian diplomats within the Schengen Area. The goal is to facilitate better information exchange and minimize intelligence risks".

Across Europe, governments are highly alert to alleged Russian espionage, drone surveillance, sabotage activities, cyberattacks, and disinformation campaigns.

As Ukraine's second-largest aid provider since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, Germany has accused Moscow of orchestrating drone flights near several European airports in recent months.