We are now closing this blog but you can read all our Europe coverage here.
Summary of the day
Germany said it has evidence that Russian state-sponsored hackers were behind an “intolerable” cyber-attack last year in which several websites were knocked offline.
The German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said “today we can say unambiguously [that] we can attribute this cyber-attack to a group called APT28, which is steered by the military intelligence service of Russia.” She added that “this is absolutely intolerable and unacceptable and will have consequences.”
Germany summoned a top Russian envoy.
The Czech foreign ministry said that “some Czech institutions have also been the target of cyber attacks exploiting a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook from 2023. The mode of operation and the focus of these attacks matched the profile of the actor APT28.
A UK government spokesperson said “the United Kingdom stands with the European Union, Germany, Czechia and other allies in strongly condemning malicious cyber activity by Russian Intelligence Services.”
Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of the Lithuanian national crisis management centre, has addressed Russian claims of planned sabotage by a person who allegedly entered to Russia from Lithuania.
As western governments condemn a police crackdown on protesters in Georgia, the country’s prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, repeated conspiratorial narratives and lashed out at the United States.
Michael Roth, chair of the German Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee, said this morning “Georgian people are fighting for all of us. Freedom and democracy will win!”
