German authorities suspect that Russia could influence the federal election campaign.
Memories of the US election campaign between Clinton and Trump are awakened.
Berlin - German politicians could fall victim to Russian propaganda in two ways before the federal election.
The Ministry of the Interior warns of cyber attacks, and branches of Russian news magazines are already influencing the opinions of their readers.
The main victim seems to be Annalena Baerbock from the Greens.
Russia Today is financed by the Russian government - and delivers news in Germany via website and YouTube: From the results of the European Football Championship to Corona and international politics of the day.
If you want, you can find out more about German politics in Germany via a Russian broadcaster.
What is striking: right through the posts - Annalena Baerbock does not come off well.
She is referred to as a "bomb", the stories about her partly oversubscribed résumé are cannibalized, her speeches are analyzed in detail.
Detailed posts about the opponents Armin Laschet (CDU) and Olaf Scholz (SPD): Nothing.
In general, many of the posts are reminiscent of conspiracy theories.
Russian propaganda against Annalena Baerbock (Greens): Quickly and repeatedly an object
Annalena Baerbock has "quickly and repeatedly" been made the subject of rhetorically tightened reporting since her appointment as Chancellor candidate of the Greens, writes the Federal Ministry of the Interior
in a confidential paper,
according to
Spiegel.de
. And further: "The actions of Russian authorities after Annalena Baerbock's candidacy was announced could
mark
the beginning of a propaganda campaign."
According to
Spiegel,
RT.de
does
not want to comment on the allegations.
The second direction the propaganda could come from: attacks via the Internet.
According to
Spiegel
, the cyber defense center of the security authorities is also alerted.
Internally, there is talk of a "high abstract threat level with regard to illegitimate attempts by foreign states to influence elections".
Cyber attacks by Russian secret service: Ministry of the Interior warns of "hack and leak"
“Hack and Leak” is the name of the method used in Hillary Clinton's election campaign against Donald Trump. Hacked emails were published, and Hillary Clinton's reputation was massively damaged. Something similar could now also threaten in Germany, suspects the Federal Office for Information Security, according to
Spiegel
. This was indicated, among other things, by a hacker attack on the email accounts of 70 members of the Bundestag. At the beginning of the year, however, members of the Union and the SPD fell victim to this.
“Brute force attacks”, on the other hand, are cyber attacks in which the hackers try to gain access to email accounts in a technically brutal way. The German authorities have recently increasingly registered such attacks. In a confidential analysis, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution warns that cyber attacks against parties, members of parliament or state institutions should be "taken seriously, especially with regard to the upcoming state and federal elections in 2021".
(kat)
