The German government said russia has stepped up hybrid attacks on the country's critical infrastructure and faces consequences for this, including new sanctions such as travel bans and asset freezes for russian citizens.
This was reported by Bloomberg.
In this regard, the German Foreign Ministry summoned the russian ambassador Sergei Nechaev on Friday, the ministry said.
"Recently, we have seen a sharp increase in hybrid activity from russia, including disinformation and espionage campaigns, cyberattacks and sabotage attempts," said the ministry's spokesman, Martin Giese.
According to him, the German authorities have irrefutable evidence of the involvement of the russian GRU in two specific incidents related to the hacker attack on the German air traffic control system (DFS) that took place in August 2024, as well as interference in the parliamentary elections in February 2025.
According to the German authorities, the GRU-linked hacker group Storm-1516 tried to influence the voting results. To this end, the attackers, the Foreign Ministry specified, distributed fake videos that compromised politicians Friedrich Merz and Robert Habeck. Another group is behind the attack on the air safety service - "APT 28", known as Fancy Bear, the department believes.
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