Foreign states, especially Russia, can try to influence the course of elections to the German Bundestag. This was stated at the conference on cybersecurity in Potsdam by the head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution of Germany Hans-Georg Masen. He compared the situation with the pre-election race in the United States, where, according to Masen, such attempts were made.

His department does not yet know whether Russia uses huge databases obtained as a result of cyber attack on the Bundestag in 2015, to interfere in the elections in Germany. "This is a political decision," he said.. - Such decisions are made in the Kremlin ". Masen stressed that he does not know what kind of data the Russian side has after the break-in, but he believes that they will be "analyzed and purposefully used for disinformation campaigns".

According to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, in comparison with the pre-election period of 2013 attempts to influence the course of the elections to the German Bundestag have increased significantly. "We are recording the growth of aggressive cyber-spying," Masen said, adding that the volumes of targeted misinformation also increased significantly. As examples, he cited a fabricated story about the rape of a Russian-speaking "Lisa girl" from Berlin and a campaign to discredit the soldiers of the Bundeswehr in Lithuania, who also allegedly raped the girl.

The same examples resulted in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on May 2, German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She stressed that in case of disinformation, it will have to take drastic measures.

A hybrid war, one of the methods of which is disinformation, is part of the military doctrine of Russia, Merkel pointed out.. Cybercrime, she said, is also a challenge to the international community.

The Russian president in turn stated that Russia "has never interfered in political life and political processes in other countries". Accusations of Moscow's interference in the course of the election campaign in the US Putin called rumors.

The next parliamentary elections in Germany will take place on September 24, 2017. The main competitor of Angela Merkel, who heads the German government for the third time, is the Social Democrat Martin Schulz, the former chairman of the European Parliament. Experts have repeatedly called Merkel the main object of Russian propaganda, but Schulz already complained about attempts to discredit with the help of fake news.

DW.