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German MFA summons Russian charges d'affaires following cyberattack accusations

German Cabinet Spokesperson Wolfgang Buchner, in turn, said that "the federal government and its international partners strongly condemn the APT28 group’s campaign against the leaders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany"

BERLIN, May 3. /TASS/. The German Foreign Ministry has summoned the Russian charges d'affaires due to the alleged hacking of email accounts of German Social Democratic Party members that Berlin blamed on Moscow.

"I can tell you that we have summoned the Russian charges d'affaires to the Foreign Ministry for noon (10:00 a.m. GMT) <...> in order to clarify the federal government’s position," German Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Christian Wagner told reporters at a briefing.

German Cabinet Spokesperson Wolfgang Buchner, in turn, said that "the federal government and its international partners strongly condemn the APT28 group’s campaign against the leaders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany." According to him, hackers "had for a long time been taking advantage of a previously unidentified vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook to compromise several email accounts." Buchner claimed that according to German intelligence agencies, APT28 "is linked to Russian military intelligence." The campaign was allegedly directed "against government agencies, logistics companies, the aerospace industry, IT services, foundations and associations."

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said earlier on Friday that Berlin believed Russia was behind the hacking attack. According to her, a government investigation led by the Foreign Ministry allegedly found that "the APT28 group is responsible for last year’s attack."

The German Social Democratic Party said in June 2023 that the email accounts of its board members had been hacked. Earlier, APT28, also known as Fancy Bear, was accused of carrying out a major cyberattack on the German Bundestag in 2015.

Russia has repeatedly rejected accusations of involvement in hacking attacks. German law enforcement agencies have so far put forward no evidence of hackers’ links to Moscow.

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