FBI accuses Russia of trying to influence German elections to weaken support for Ukraine

Spiegel reported the information.

Moscow is said to be influencing the U.S. elections, and Germany has been one of the main targets of Russian disinformation for at least two years.

On September 4, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions against the editor-in-chief of the Russian TV channel RT, Margarita Simonyan, and other Russian propagandists. American ministries also published court documents that show Moscow's interference in the current U.S. presidential election campaign.

The police report quotes from the recordings of relevant meetings of Russian disinformation campaigners who discussed strategies to "discredit" the United States, Britain, and NATO and "convey the truth about the war in Ukraine." They also talk about focusing attention on Germany.

According to the FBI, one of the documents to the Russian company Agency for Social Design states that the goal was to "increase internal tensions in U.S. allied countries" to advance Russia's interests in the international arena. To this end, the Alternative for Germany party was to be supported "by all possible means." The goal was to create an "image of martyrs" of the party "suffering for democracy and Germany's national interests." This was to be achieved, for example, by distributing fake videos or websites.

The FBI's investigation focuses primarily on Russia's "lookalike" campaign, i.e., imitating the websites of existing quality media outlets and government agencies. According to the U.S. government, the attempts to influence are initiated from the very top - "under the direction and control of the Russian presidential administration."

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