Russia-linked group blamed for fake Merz resignation video

BERLIN - German security services believe a Russia-linked group was behind a fake video recently spread online alleging plans for Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s resignation, a source there told AFP on Aug 7.

The video uses the branding of German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle and business daily Handelsblatt to claim that leaked documents from Merz’s conservative CDU party showed he was planning to resign next week in reaction to his poor poll ratings.

Both media organisations have said the video is a complete fabrication.

Merz’s office told AFP in a statement that the video’s claims were “completely invented” and aimed at “confusing and unnerving people”.

His CDU party dismissed it as “nonsense”.

A security source told AFP that the “creator is probably Storm 1516”, an operation linked to Russian military intelligence.

The same group is suspected of having spread disinformation during the last general election in February 2025, which brought Merz to power at the head of a coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).

According to France’s Viginum agency, which tracks foreign disinformation campaigns, Storm-1516 between late 2023 and March 2025 has been behind at least 77 disinformation operations targeting Western countries.

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency told AFP that the latest video “shows that the creators closely follow political developments in Germany and use these opportunistically”.

The video claimed that Merz was planning to stand aside in favour of Hendrik Wuest, the CDU state premier of North Rhein-Westphalia.

German media did in fact speculate about such a scenario earlier this year, and doubts about Merz’s future may resurface after upcoming state elections in eastern Germany next month in which the CDU is expected to perform poorly.

However, the video contains an obvious mistake, referring to a “general federal election in September” when no such vote will take place.

The video uses a common disinformation tactic in which invented claims are falsely presented as reports from established media organisations.

German authorities have already blamed Moscow for a campaign of disinformation and sabotage aimed at weakening Germany’s support for Ukraine.

And earlier this week a drone laden with “professional explosives” was found near a Ukrainian cargo plane at Germany’s Leipzig-Halle airport.

German officials have, however, refrained from assigning blame for what they labelled a “a hybrid attack” scenario. AFP