“RUSSIAN cyber activity” in Germany actually fell in the run-up to last years German Federal elections according to a shock new report, though German authorities say this is down to the work of their intelligence service.
A new report has revealed Russian online interference in Germany actually fell in the run-up to last year’s Federal Elections.
The key briefing, published on Tuesday by Germany’s Interior Ministry and state security agency, dispels accusations of Russian meddling in another European election.
Prior to the vote Hans-Georg Maassen, the chief of Germany’s state security agency, had warned there was a risk of Russian interference in the poll.
However the report claimed that in the run-up to last September’s vote there was “even a decline in Russian cyber activity possibly connected to the election”.
Specifically it noted, referring to the German Parliament, that it was “almost impossible for the intelligence services to find irrefutable evidence that Russia was behind the cyber-attacks on the Bundestag”.
In November 2016 Chancellor Angela Merkel claimed Germany was facing “cyber-attacks from Russian sources” and also warned about the spread of “false information”.
The yearly report, titled “Protection of Constitution”, was published on Tuesday.
It was jointly released by German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and Maassen, representing Germany’s BfV security agency.
As well as commenting on Russian hacking it noted Germany has a growing number of domestic extremists, and warned about the threat from German ISIS fighters returning from Syria and Iraq.
Germany’s federal election on 24 September saw both Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democrats and the opposition Social Democrats lose seats.
By contrast there was shock when the radical Alternative for Germany Party (AfD) gained 94 seats, its first in the German Parliament.
The AfD has surged in popularity since Mrs Merkel allowed over a million Syrian refugees to enter Germany in 2015.
Mrs Merkel returned to power on 14 March following a deal with the opposition social democrats.
As a result AfD have become the official opposition in the German Parliament.
It has been confirmed there was Russian interference in the 2016 US Presidential elections, which a January 2017 assessment from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence claimed was aimed at boosting Trump over Clinton.