The German government has accused Russia of a massive cyberattack and a comprehensive disinformation campaign during the Bundestag election campaign. As a result, the Russian ambassador to Berlin was summoned to the Foreign Office.
Russia Blamed for Cyberattack on Air Traffic Control and Election Interference
A spokesman for the Foreign Office in Berlin stated on Friday that the cyberattack in August 2024 on German air traffic control has been clearly attributed to the hacker collective APT28, known as “Fancy Bear,” and the Russian military intelligence service GRU. Furthermore, it can now be “reliably stated” that Russia attempted “to influence and destabilize both the last Bundestag election and the ongoing internal affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany.”
He added that the German government, in coordination with European partners, would “take a series of countermeasures to make Russia pay a price for its hybrid actions.”
There is also evidence of election interference, for which the German government primarily blames the “Storm-1516” campaign. “Storm-1516” is described as one of the worst disinformation outlets online, even by Russian standards. According to the spokesman, there is “reliable information” that the Moscow-based think tank Center for Geopolitical Expertise and the Double-Headed Eagle Movement are behind it, supported by the Russian military intelligence service GRU.
Fake News Targeting Merz and Habeck
During the Bundestag election campaign, “Storm-1516” spread drastic lies through its numerous fake websites. These were primarily directed against the CDU/CSU and the Greens.
In one of the clips, a supposed doctor claimed that the then-CDU chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz had been treated years ago in a clinic in Sauerland for severe psychological problems. Fake medical records were displayed alongside this claim.
Another site operated by the information warriors accused the then-Green Party top candidate Robert Habeck of a 100-million-euro corruption scandal, also involving Ukrainian politicians. This was also entirely fabricated.
Just days before the Bundestag election in February, several fake videos appeared online claiming that postal ballots had been manipulated. The clips showed alleged ballot papers from a Leipzig electoral district where the AfD was missing. “This is fraud, no AfD,” a voice said. This too was a blatant lie. The city reacted quickly, issuing a statement about a “targeted campaign.” Security circles already indicated at the time that the fake news was likely attributable to Moscow’s intelligence services.
In total, German security authorities analyzed ten so-called “information activities” over a year until July: nine videos and a fake website that is no longer accessible. Together, these offers achieved a reach of several million views – although the sheer reach does not indicate whether the targeted false messages achieved their intended effect among users. The video about the supposedly fake Leipzig ballots was particularly far-reaching, with over a million views.
“The Storm-1516 campaign shows very concretely how our democratic order is being attacked,” said Sinan Selen, head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
IT experts from Microsoft also identified “Storm-1516” as a state-sponsored Russian campaign. The group reportedly attempted to influence the 2024 US election in Donald Trump’s favor with fabricated stories targeting the Democratic Party. For example, the information warriors spread a video from a fake news channel in which a woman in a wheelchair was interviewed. She claimed that presidential candidate Kamala Harris had once hit her with a car in San Francisco and coldly committed a hit-and-run.
According to disinformation experts from the French government, the group has existed since at least summer 2023. It spreads both videos with amateur actors – as in the cases of Harris and Merz – and AI-generated deepfakes. “Storm-1516” is a “significant threat to public digital discourse,” according to the French.
This unit is tasked with keeping an eye on Russia’s information warriors. The German government has deployed a unit for “detecting foreign information manipulation.” What this unit has been doing since its launch a few months ago can be read here.
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