Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has stated that she has conclusive evidence that she was targeted by Russian hackers in espionage attempts.
These statements arise as a consequence of the news published by Der Spiegel, indicating that Russian military intelligence had obtained emails from Merkel's parliamentary office in 2015.
The German intelligence service has repeatedly accused Russian hackers of spying on top German politicians. The Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament, also discovered that its systems had been breached in May of 2015.
Merkel stated that this disappointed her greatly, after years of trying to improve the relationship with Russia, this caused some insecurity in the chancellor. She added that she also reserved the right to take countermeasures against Russia, if necessary.
Regarding the data theft from her office in a question-and-answer session with Parliament legislators, the German chancellor stated that it seemed that Russian IT specialists tried to collect all the data they could.
Russia has repeatedly denied any involvement in the cyberattack on 2015 the German parliament. Merkel believes that the distortion of facts was also part of Russia's strategy.