Disinfo: Germany accused Russia of hacking the Bundestag either to advance the NordStream 2 or as a pretext not to participate in the Victory Parade

Summary

There are two versions of the events [regarding the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoning the Russian ambassador in relation to the cyber attacks on Bundestag in 2015]. Either they have a trump card, for example a photo of S.Naryshkin [the director of Russian Foreign Intelligence Service] awarding a hacker for the attack, or the Germans really want the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, against the wishes of the other Europeans and Americans. The Germans are facing an enormous pressure and must make some kind of reverences. And the reverences to Americans are always Russia-related. […] And then there is a second reason, and I might be mistaken but I suspect it exists: the Russian envoy to Germany was summoned the next day after it was announced that Russia will hold a Victory day parade on the 24th of June. Earlier, it was discussed in Germany that it would be represented at a very high level, possibly the Chancellor, and now they have a pretext not to come.

Disproof

Unsubstantiated claims obfuscating Russia's responsibility for cyber attacks on the German Parliament in 2015. The Germany's domestic intelligence agency said Russia was behind a series of attacks on German state computer systems, including the German parliament in 2015. According to the reports of the German media, the federal prosecutor's office has issued an international arrest warrant against Dmitriy Badin, a hacker reportedly working for the Russian military intelligence service in relation to the cyber attack. The public attention to the 2015 cyber attack and its attribution to Russia again became prominent in May 2020 as the German Chancellor told the German Parliament she had hard evidence that Russia was behind the attack. There is no evidence to suggest that the investigation of the German intelligence agency of the Chancellors statement are in anyway connected to the NordStream2 pipeline or the Victory day parade in Moscow. The disinformation claims were presented during a TV broadcast as series of speculations and a personal opinion of an expert, that were unchallenged and were shown on a state-run TV channel. The disinformation message appeared in the same TV broadcast as the claims that accusations against Russia with regard to the cyber attacks in Germany are groundless, in the same way the accusations over the Skripal poisoning are.

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Pervyi Kanal (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 199
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 02/06/2020
  • Outlet language(s) Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Germany
  • Keywords: Nord Stream 2, Cyber
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