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Neo-Nazi crime spikes

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency monitored a 15.8 percent increase in right-wing extremist crime last year, Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said in Berlin on Tuesday.

Published: 19 May 2009 17:04 CEST

Neo-Nazi crime spikes

Photo: DPA

Law enforcement logged 19,894 such incidents, 1,042 of which were violent crimes, the yearly study found.

The most dangerous of these groups are the so-called autonomist neo-Nazis, who have styled themselves after the left-wing, anti-fascist Autonomen, or “Black Bloc.” These neo-Nazis are known to turn up at Black Bloc demonstrations and have a high “violence potential,” Schäuble said.

Some 83 percent of right-wing extremist crimes fall into the categories of propaganda and incitement, while 5.2 percent are violent, he added.

The number of alleged neo-Nazis also rose from 400 to 4,800 – and this group is having an ever-greater influence on the nationalist NPD party.

But Schäuble said banning the party would create a boomerang effect and be the “dumbest thing one could do to fight the NPD.”

Though the number of their violent crimes has gone down 15.8 percent in the last year, Schäuble emphasised that left-wing anarchists remain a major security risk in Germany. Rioting and attacks on police by anti-government groups like Aktionsfeld Antimilitarismus reached a “frightening abandon” during May 1 celebrations, he said.

The interior minister also mentioned that Islamists – particularly second generation immigrants and radical converts – are travelling from Germany to Pakistan for training by terror organisations such as al Qaida. Germany remains “directly in the sights” of Islamist terror groups, according to the report.

Meanwhile an NPD party candidate in the southern city of Trier allegedly took part in beating three young men in retaliation for tearing down NPD posters, police said Tuesday.

The city council candidate, Safet Babic, and a group of neo-Nazis attacked the men, beating a 21-year-old so badly he had to be hospitalised. They are under investigation for assault.

Germany, Czech Republic accuse Russia of cyberattacks

The accusations come at a time of strained relations between Moscow and the West following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the European Union’s support for Kyiv.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said a newly concluded government investigation found that a cyberattack targeting members of the Social Democratic Party had been carried out by a group known as APT28.

APT28 “is steered by the military intelligence service of Russia”, Baerbock told reporters during a visit to Australia.

“In other words, it was a state-sponsored Russian cyberattack on Germany and this is absolutely intolerable and unacceptable and will have consequences.”

APT28, also known as Fancy Bear, has been accused of dozens of cyberattacks in countries around the world. Russia denies being behind such actions.

The hacking attack on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD party was made public last year. Hackers exploited a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook to compromise e-mail accounts, according to Berlin.

Berlin on Friday summoned the acting charge d’affaires of the Russian embassy over the incident.

The Russian embassy in Germany said its envoy “categorically rejected the accusations that Russian state structures were involved in the given incident… as unsubstantiated and groundless”.

Arms, aerospace targeted: Berlin

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the cyber campaign was orchestrated by Russia’s military intelligence service GRU and began in 2022. It also targeted German companies in the armaments and aerospace sectors, she said.

Such cyberattacks are “a threat to our democracy, national security and our free societies”, she told a joint news conference in Prague with her Czech counterpart Vit Rakusan.

“We are calling on Russia again to stop these activities,” Faeser added.

Czech government officials said some of its state institutions had also been the target of cyberattacks blamed on APT28, again by exploiting a weakness in Microsoft Outlook in 2023.

Czech Interior Minister Rakusan said his country’s infrastructure had recently experienced “higher dozens” of such attacks.

“The Czech Republic is a target. In the long term, it has been perceived by the Russian Federation as an enemy state,” he told reporters.

EU, NATO condemnation

The German and Czech findings triggered strong condemnation from the European Union.

“The malicious cyber campaign shows Russia’s continuous pattern of irresponsible behaviour in cyberspace, by targeting democratic institutions, government entities and critical infrastructure providers across the European Union and beyond,” EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said.

The EU would “make use of the full spectrum of measures to prevent, deter and respond to Russia’s malicious behaviour in cyberspace”, he added.

State institutions, agencies and entities in other member states including in Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia and Sweden had been targeted by APT28 in the past, the statement added.

The latest accusations come a day after NATO expressed “deep concern” over Russia’s “hybrid actions” including disinformation, sabotage and cyber interference.

The row also comes as millions of Europeans prepare to go to the polls for the European Parliament elections in June, and concerns about foreign meddling are running high.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky told AFP that “pointing a finger publicly at a specific attacker is an important tool to protect national interests”.

One of the most high-profile incidents so far blamed on Fancy Bear was a cyberattack in 2015 that paralysed the computer network of the German lower house of parliament, the Bundestag. It forced the entire institution offline for days while it was fixed.

In 2020, the EU imposed sanctions on individuals and entities linked to the APT28 group over the incident.

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