MOSCOW, May 27. /TASS/. Russian Embassy in Germany denied allegations of Moscow’s involvement in 2015 cyberattacks on the Bundestag and believes that promotion of this topic is being used to divert attention from problems over the coronavirus pandemic.

"Amid the coronavirus pandemic and related internal political and economic hardships, someone decided it would be nice to reveal the ‘proof’ of the Russian threat," the embassy said in a commentary for the DPA news agency, adding that "unfortunately, instead of a political dialogue, instead of using diplomatic channels, instead of cooperation of intelligence services and legal assistance of security agencies, the priority is given to the media and megaphone diplomacy."

The embassy underscored that when Russia expressed its readiness to discuss all issues with participation of the relevant agencies, the German side suddenly lost all interest.

Speaking in the Bundestag in May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel claimed that Germany wants to improve its relations with Russia, but a number of factors prevent this, including the 2015 cyberattack on the Bundestag, attributed to the Fancy Bear hacker group. Earlier, German Public Prosecutor General’s Office issued an international arrest warrant against Dmitry Badin, a Russian national, suspected of participation in the cyberattack.

The attack on the Bundestag networks began on April 30, 2015. Many lawmakers received similar emails, sent from @un.org addresses, pretending to be related to the United Nations. The emails contained a hyperlink, which, upon clicking, downloaded malware to the system. In a bid to stop the malware’s spread, German cybersecurity had to temporarily shut off the entire Bundestag IT infrastructure. During the attack, over 16 gigabytes of data were stolen, including the lawmakers’ emails.

Russia repeatedly denied its involvement in the hacker attacks. No German agency has ever provided any proof for the media’s allegations of the cyber criminals’ ties with Moscow.