German intelligence has accused Russia of systematically undermining relations between Europe and the US, German Spiegel Online magazine wrote, citing a new report prepared jointly by the Federal Intelligence Service and the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
The authors of the paper have concluded that Moscow has been trying to exacerbate conflicts that existed in the West and undermine the alliance between the EU and the US.
"In their recent report, BND and German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution came to the conclusion that Russia's influence in the EU could have been observed for years. In particular, Moscow tried to sharpen social conflicts, especially those existing in the West," the magazine wrote.
According to first deputy head of the committee on defense in the Russian Federation Council Yevgeny Serebrennikov, such accusations arise from the fact that certain forces in the European Union are afraid of a possible rapprochement between Russia and the United States, which is why they are trying to do everything to preserve the old system.
"Certain forces in the European Union, which are above the national governments, are very afraid of a possible rapprochement between the Russian Federation and the United States in the context of the position expressed by US president-elect Donald Trump," Serebrennikov said.
In his opinion, these forces have repeatedly been trying to "add a spoonful of tar in a barrel of honey" and form a negative information environment around Russia and present it as evil.
This is not the first time that Moscow has been accused of trying to undermine the EU's stability. Earlier, the outgoing President of Bulgaria Rosen Plevneliev said that Russia was trying to destabilize Europe through the Balkans.
According to Plevneliev, the Kremlin used various tools to undermine the EU's unity, including "propaganda" and "financing of ultra-left and ultra-right forces that are hostile to European integration."
Officials in Poland and the Czech Republic expressed a similar point of view, saying that Moscow intended to destabilize Europe by triggering a refugee crisis.
In December 2016, reports emerged that the German government feared the potential influence of Russia on the 2017 parliamentary elections after the US Central Intelligence Agency accused Moscow of being behind cyberattacks against the Democratic National Committee (DNC) computer systems in an attempt to influence the November US presidential election in favor of Donald Trump.
Russian officials have repeatedly denied the allegations, calling them absurd and characterizing them as an attempt to divert US public opinion from revelations of corruption as well as other pressing domestic issues.
Meanwhile, at his final press conference at the end of last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed that Moscow is interested in developing cooperation with the EU and is not involved in any internal issues in Europe.
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