Berlin authorities will agree on new sanctions against Russia with the EU. Germany will assume the presidency of the EU Council on July 1st. The restrictions will affect the members of a hacker group, which, according to German investigators, worked for the GRU and hacked into the mail of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
It became known that new sanctions will be initiated against Russian citizens after the report of a German Foreign Ministry representative. Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergei Nechayev has been summoned to the local Foreign Ministry.
“The Russian ambassador was informed with reference to the warrant issued by the Prosecutor General’s Office on May 5th, 2020 against Russian citizen Dmitry Badin that the German government will urge the Brussels to involve the European regime of cyber sanctions against those responsible for the attack on the German Bundestag. Including with regard to Mr. Badin,” a representative of the German ministry said.
The EU cyber-sanctions regime implies a ban on entry into the EU countries and an asset freeze. A representative of the German Foreign Ministry also said they have evidence that indicates that Badin worked for Russian military intelligence.
We are talking about a hacker attack in April-May 2015. Investigators claim that the Russian, in particular, carried out an attack on Bundestag computer systems. German journalists reported that the hacker managed to download 16 gigabytes of information. It is well known that there were thousands of letters from Angela Merkel’s office.
