Germany has summoned the acting chargé d'affaires of the Russian embassy in response to a Russian cyberattack on the governing centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) last year.
He had been summoned for around midday, a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry announced in Berlin on Friday.
"[It is a clear diplomatic signal] to make it clear to Moscow that we do not accept this behaviour, that we clearly condemn it and that we reserve the right to impose consequences," the spokesman added.
The chargé d'affaires is Alexei Korlyakov.
The European Union and NATO on Friday issued statements condemning the attack on Germany and the Czech Republic, which says it was also targeted.
The EU statement, issued by EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrel on behalf of all 27 member states, said the bloc "is determined to make use of the full spectrum of measures to prevent, deter and respond to Russia’s malicious behaviour in cyberspace."
The EU statement said, "The malicious cyber campaign shows Russia’s continuous pattern of irresponsible behaviour in cyberspace, by targeting democratic institutions, government entities and critical infrastructure providers across the European Union and beyond."
The NATO military alliance said: "We stand in solidarity with Germany following the malicious cyber campaign against a political party, in this case the Social Democratic Party of Germany, and with Czechia following the malicious cyber activities against its institutions."
"We strongly condemn malicious cyber activities intended to undermine our democratic institutions, national security and free society."
Deputy government spokesman Wolfgang Büchner said that the German government strongly condemned the repeated and unacceptable cyberattacks by Russian state-controlled actors.
Germany is once again calling on Russia to refrain from such actions, he said. "Germany is determined to work with its European and international partners to counter such cyberattacks," he said.
The actions of the cybergroup APT28 could be specifically attributed to the Russian military intelligence service GRU on the basis of reliable information from the German intelligence services, Büchner said.
The campaign was also directed against government agencies and companies in the fields of logistics, defence, aerospace, IT services, foundations and associations, he added.
"It was directed against targets in Germany and other European countries as well as targets in Ukraine," he said. APT28 was also responsible for the cyberattack on the Bundestag in 2015.
Earlier, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Berlin blames a unit of the Russian military intelligence service GRU for a 2023 cyberattack on the centre-left SPD, whichs form the governing coalition with junior partners the Greens and pro-business Free Democrats (FDP).
In June 2023, the SPD said that email accounts belonging to its executive had been the target of a cyberattack earlier that year.
According to the SPD, this was made possible by a security vulnerability in software which was not known at the time of the attack. "It cannot be ruled out that data was leaked from individual email inboxes," an SPD statement said.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in Berlin on Friday that she is determined to counter Russian cyberattacks in Germany.
"Under no circumstances will we allow ourselves to be intimidated by the Russian regime. We will continue to provide massive support to Ukraine, which is defending itself against Putin's murderous war," the SPD politician said.
Faeser said that the attacks were not only aimed at individual parties or specific politicians, but also at shaking confidence in democracy. Germany is now acting together with other EU states, NATO and international partners, she said.
The security authorities had ramped up all protective measures against hybrid threats and were well networked internationally, she said. "This year, with the European elections and other elections, we must arm ourselves particularly well against hacker attacks, manipulation and disinformation," said Faeser.
