Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejects Merkel's accusation of hacking

After German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she had been a target of Russian hackers, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejected the accusations on May 15. According to the international news agency, Lavrov said in a press conference that at least five years have passed and yet “not a single concrete fact has been provided” that Russia spied on Merkel. However, the German Chancellor has said on May 13 that she had “hard evidence” of “outrageous” attempts by hacking linked to Russia. 

News magazine Der Spiegel has reported that Russian GRU military intelligence service had breached the emails from Merkel’s constituency office back in 2015. Recently, Merkel also said that the investigators had located the suspects of the incident that took place five years ago and said the discoveries were “not new”. According to the German chancellor, cyber hacking and distortion of facts constitute “Russia’s strategy”.

"I can honestly say that it pains me. Every day I try to build a better relationship with Russia and on the other hand, there is such hard evidence that Russian forces are doing this," she told parliament.

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Arrest warrant issued

German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported last week that federal prosecutors have issued an arrest warrant an against an alleged officer with Russian military intelligence agency identified as Dmitriy Badin. According to reports, Badin is already being sought by authorities in the United States. Moreover, when Merkel was asked about the theft of data that belonged to her office she said that the hackers picked up indiscriminately “what they could get”.

Merkel said in the question-answer session, “I get the impression that they picked up relatively indiscriminately what they could get.”

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“I am very glad that the investigations have now led to the federal prosecutor putting a concrete person on the wanted list,” she said. “I take these things very seriously.”

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(With AP inputs)