The European Union and Great Britain imposed sanctions against two Russian citizens - Igor Kostyukov and Dmitry Badin, as well as against a unit of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (GRU) for hacker attacks on the Bundestag in 2015. The Russians, according to the EU Council, stole a large amount of data from the information system of the parliament and handed it over to the special services of the Russian Federation.
“The Council imposed restrictive measures against two individuals and one body who were responsible or participated in the cyber attack on the German federal parliament in April and May 2015. This cyberattack targeted the parliament's information system and affected its ability to function for several days. A significant amount of data was stolen, as well as the mail accounts of several members of parliament, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, were affected. , - says the EU Council statement and regulations published in the official journal of the community.
Later on the imposition of sanctions was announced by the UK authorities. The UK Foreign Office said in a statement that restrictions are being imposed on two Russian GRU officers and GRU Unit 26165.
"The UK will freeze accounts and ban two Russian GRU officers from entering its territory and impose sanctions against GRU Unit 26165, codenamed APT28 and Fancy Bear, which are responsible for the 2015 cyberattack on the German parliament.", - indicated at the British Foreign Office.
Germany in early June proposed EU countries to impose sanctions against Russia.
In early May 2020, Germany reported that Russian hackers had hacked the email address of German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2015. The attackers, according to German investigators, received letters from the chancellor from the parliamentary bureau, dated 2012.
On May 5, the German prosecutor's office issued a warrant for the arrest of 29-year-old Russian citizen Dmitry Badin, suspected of hacking into the computer networks of the Bundestag in the interests of Russian intelligence services. According to German media reports, he was a member of the Fancy Bear hacker group. Moscow denies all accusations of involvement in the scandal in Berlin.
Later, the German Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador to this case. Among other things, there were suspicions that the hackers could be associated with the murder in Berlin of Georgian field commander Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in 2019.
