BERLIN. The federal government has decided to recall the German ambassador to Russia, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, to Germany for consultations, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman announced on Monday. The background is the cyber attack on the SPD, which Berlin attributes to the Russian government. The Foreign Ministry spokeswoman emphasized that the federal government is taking the matter “very seriously” and that it was “complementary to other events in recent months.”
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) announced this on Fridaythat “Russian hackers attacked Germany in cyberspace.” The investigation has now been completed. “Today we can clearly attribute this attack from last year to the APT28 group, which is controlled by the Russian secret service GRU,” the Green politician said. This is “completely unacceptable” and “will not go without consequences.”
Faeser does not want to be intimidated by Russia
Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) also commented on the incidents. The attacks are approx “A threat to our democracy”. The 53-year-old stressed that Berlin would “under no circumstances be intimidated by the Russian regime.” The federal government will “continue to provide massive support” to Ukraine.
In June last year, a spokesperson for the Social Democrats announced that email accounts of the federal party’s executive committee had become the target of cyber attacks. According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the attack started at the end of December 2022 and the hackers had been exploiting a vulnerability in the system of the email provider ‘Outlook’ since at least March 2022. At the end of January this year, under the leadership of the FBI, the compromised devices were taken out of circulation and further espionage was prevented.
Lambsdorff has been chief envoy at the German embassy in Moscow since the end of 2023. From 2017 to 2023, the FDP politician was a member of the German Bundestag. (st)