Support The Moscow Times!

EU, UK Slap Sanctions on Russian Spies for Hacking German Parliament

Jean-Etienne Minh-Duy Poirrier / Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The EU and Britain imposed sanctions Thursday on senior Russian intelligence officers for their alleged role in hacking the computer network in the German parliament in 2015.

The head of the GRU military intelligence agency, Igor Kostyukov, and intelligence officer Dmitri Badin have been banned from EU soil and are subject to an asset freeze.

A GRU unit, alleged to be responsible for cyber attacks, has also been added to the EU sanctions list. 

Britain, which formally left the EU in January, said it was joining the bloc in enforcing asset freezes and travel bans against the two officers and intelligence unit. 

A cyber attack in April and May 2015 completely paralyzed the IT infrastructure of the Bundestag and the entire parliament had to be taken offline for days while it was fixed. 

In a statement, the European Council said that "a considerable amount of data had been stolen" and that "the email accounts of several members of parliament, including that of Chancellor Angela Merkel" had been hit. 

Merkel has publicly blamed Russia for the hacking.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: "The UK stands shoulder to shoulder with Germany and our European partners to hold Russia to account for cyber attacks designed to undermine Western democracies. 

"This criminal behavior brings the Russian Government into further disrepute," he added.

Kostyukov was already on another EU sanctions list. In January 2019, he was banned from entering the UK and bank accounts allegedly link to him in the EU were frozen because of the nerve agent attack on British-based former double agent Sergei Skripal.  

Badin had already been identified by German investigating authorities as the suspected mastermind behind the attack on the Bundestag. 

An arrest warrant was issued against him by Germany's Federal Public Prosecutor General in May.  The U.S. FBI is seeking Badin on suspicions of having influenced the presidential election of 2016. 

According to the European Council, Badin is alleged to have worked for the GRU's 85th Main Center for Special Services (GTsSS) — a notorious cyber unit also known as "APT28" and "Fancy Bear."

… we have a small favor to ask.

As you may have heard, The Moscow Times, an independent news source for over 30 years, has been unjustly branded as a "foreign agent" by the Russian government. This blatant attempt to silence our voice is a direct assault on the integrity of journalism and the values we hold dear.

We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. Our commitment to providing accurate and unbiased reporting on Russia remains unshaken. But we need your help to continue our critical mission.

Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just 2. It's quick to set up, and you can be confident that you're making a significant impact every month by supporting open, independent journalism. Thank you.

Continue

Read more