BERLIN (AP) – Russia is trying to destabilize German society with propaganda and cyberattacks ahead of the country’s general election, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency said Thursday.
The warning was the bluntest public claim yet from Germany’s BfV agency about Moscow’s alleged campaign of disinformation and hacking targeting Europe’s biggest economy.
“There is growing evidence of attempts to influence the federal election next year,” said the BfV’s head, Hans-Georg Maassen, citing “increasingly aggressive cyberespionage” against political entities in Germany.
Russia has been blamed for the hacking and release of Democratic National Committee emails before the U.S. presidential election. But Moscow has strongly denied involvement in orchestrating cyberattacks on foreign soil and hit back with allegations of its own against the West.
Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said last month: “Believe me, we’re expecting cyberattacks during election campaigns, every election campaign in Russia. These cyberattacks also happen, and believe me, there are also people behind those tens of thousands of cyberattacks who work from Germany just like other European countries.”