“The foreign minister has recalled Ambassador Alexander Graf Lambsdorff to Berlin for consultations” after Berlin attributed a cyber-espionage campaign to APT 28, a group linked to Moscow’s GRU military intelligence agency, the spokesperson said.

The move is in line with diplomatic protocol and Lambsdorff will remain in Berlin for one week before returning to Moscow, the spokesperson added.

The Russian Foreign Ministry and its embassy in Berlin did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The accusations come amid heightened anxiety in Europe over suspected Russian hackers and spies since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and in the run-up to European elections.

Berlin said the attacks that started two years ago targeted Germany’s governing Social Democrats as well as companies in the logistics, defense, aerospace, and IT sectors. It has not provided details of the damage caused for security reasons.

The APT28 group, also known as “Fancy Bear,” exploited a then-unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook to compromise email accounts, according to German authorities.

The campaign also affected other countries including the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Sweden.

Relations between Russia and Germany, which used to be the biggest buyer of Russian oil and gas, have broken down since the Kremlin invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Germany will not be represented at the inauguration of Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday for his next six-year term in office, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry said.