German Foreign Ministry Summons Russian Ambassador Over 2015 Hacking Attack On Bundestag

German Foreign Ministry Summons Russian Ambassador Over 2015 Hacking Attack on Bundestag

Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergey Nechaev was summoned on Thursday to the German Foreign Office over the 2015 hacking attack on the country's parliament, the Bundestag, the ministry said

BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th May, 2020) Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergey Nechaev was summoned on Thursday to the German Foreign Office over the 2015 hacking attack on the country's parliament, the Bundestag, the ministry said.

Earlier in May, German prosecution issued an arrest warrant for a Russian suspect, allegedly involved in the 2015 hacking of emails from computers in the Bundestag. German media said he was a military intelligence officer, named Dmitry Badin. Russia has repeatedly denied claims of being behind hacking attacks.

"State secretary of the Federal Foreign Office, Miguel Berger, has invited Russian Federation Ambassador Sergey Nechaev to the Federal Foreign Office for today's talks. On behalf of the federal government, he firmly condemned the hacking attack on Germany's Bundestag," the ministry said in a statement.

"The Russian ambassador was told that the federal government in Brussels will apply the European Union's cybersanctions regime against people responsible for the attack on Germany's Bundestag, including Badin," the Foreign Office added.

The German Foreign Office stressed it had evidence that Badin was an officer of the Main Directorate of the Russian armed forces' General Staff, known by abbreviation GRU.

"The warrant for Badin's arrest was issued due to suspicions that the offender, acting with other people, whose Names have not been identified yet, engaged in intelligence activities against the Federal Republic of Germany in the interests of a foreign nation's special service. He is suspected of being involved in the hacking attack on German Bundestag in April-May 2015, as a member of a group ... There is reliable evidence that at the moment of the attack he worked for the GRU military intelligence service," the statement read on.