Russia rejects allegations of spying on Germany’s Merkel in 2015

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has rejected claims by German Chancellor Angela Merkel that Russian hackers spied on her in 2015.

“Five years have passed. Not a single concrete fact has been provided,” Lavrov said in a live interview with Russia’s RBK media group on Friday.

Speaking in the German parliament on Wednesday, Merkel said she had concrete proof of Moscow’s “outrageous” hacking attacks targeting her. “Obviously, this doesn’t make it easier” to pursue a better relationship with Moscow, she said.

Merkel added that Germany might consider imposing new sanctions against Russia if the alleged activities continued.

In his Friday remarks, however, Lavrov said that Germany’s accusations came despite Berlin having “no facts in relation to Russia.”

“They suddenly said in the Bundestag… that all of this is outrageous and it had been done by Russians,” he said.

German media reported last week that Russia appeared to have acquired emails from Merkel’s constituency office in a 2015 hack attack on Germany’s parliament, with data from two of Merkel’s email accounts being completely copied by hackers.

The media reports named Russian national Dmitry Badin as the suspect.

Badin has also been accused by US authorities of conducting cyberattacks, notably against the 2016 US presidential election.

No evidence was produced, however.

SS