The head of the German Federal office for the protection of the Constitution (counterintelligence), Hans-Georg Maassen said that Russia “has refrained from attempts to influence the election to the Bundestag”. On Thursday, October 5, reports the Epoch Times Europe.
According to Maasen in Moscow apparently came to the conclusion that “the political costs of such intervention were too high.”
On 30 August the Minister of foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov said that German intelligence did not present a single fact about the intervention of Russia in election campaign in Germany. “If we talk about facts we know, some time ago it became clear that the German Chancellor was tapped by American intelligence services. I don’t remember about this established fact the German counter-intelligence said something,” said the Minister.
Three days earlier Maassen stated that the Russian intelligence services are highly active in Germany and can try to influence the forthcoming elections to the Bundestag (Parliament). According to the official, Moscow is able to organize a disinformation campaign with the help of cyber attacks. “The likelihood of this scenario is high,” he said.
On 24 September Germany elections to the Federal Assembly, where a majority of the votes received CDU/CSU led by Chancellor Angela Merkel — 32.9%. Second place went to the social Democrats, with 20.5 percent of votes. For the first time in its history, the Parliament passed far-right party “Alternative for Germany”. She took third place with about 13 percent of the vote.