The Russian Foreign Ministry has expanded the list of German citizens who are prohibited from entering the territory of the Russian Federation, in response to EU sanctions against a GRU unit and its employees for hacker attacks on the Bundestag. The corresponding statement is posted on the official website of the department.
“According to the diplomatic principle of reciprocity, the new persons involved in the Russian stop-list have been elected senior officials of the German security and intelligence agencies that are part of the system of the German Ministry of Defense,” the department said.
The Foreign Ministry emphasized that Moscow has repeatedly offered Berlin to hold joint consultations to clarify the circumstances of the cyberattacks, but never received a response. According to the diplomatic department, this indicates that the FRG authorities are not interested in a real investigation of attacks attributed to “Russian hackers”.
On October 22, the European Union and the United Kingdom imposed sanctions against a unit and employees of the Main Directorate of the GRU accused of involvement in the hacker attacks on the Bundestag. Under the new restrictions were the 85th Main Special Operations Center of the GRU, the head of the department, Igor Kostyukov, and an employee suspected of carrying out the attack itself, Dmitry Badin. The sanctions consist of an entry ban and an asset freeze.
On May 8, German investigators said Russian hackers were behind the 2015 hack of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's email address. It was noted that letters from the parliamentary bureau have fallen into the hands of the Russian military service since 2012. It is known that the attack on the network took place during the celebration in the Bundestag of the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Moscow denied the accusations and called them groundless.
