Germany braced for Russian poll meddling

Germany is expecting Russia to try to influence its general election on Sept 24, but there are no indications of which party it would seek to back, officials said yesterday.

Interior minister Thomas de Maizière said data stolen in 2015 in a parliamentary hack could surface. Hans-georg Maassen, the head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, said he suspected Vladimir Putin would prefer a different German chancellor to Angela Merkel.