March 22 (Reuters) -

Elite hackers tied to Russian intelligence last month

targeted several German political parties with an eye toward

burrowing into their networks and stealing data, according to an

alert released by Germany's cybersecurity agency and security

researchers working for Google owner Alphabet.

In a report published on Friday, Alphabet's Mandiant cyber

unit said it had caught the hacking group known as APT29, which

is alleged by Western intelligence to act on behalf of Russia's

SVR foreign spy agency, trying to trick "key German political

figures" into opening an email masquerading as an invitation to

a dinner event hosted by the Christian Democratic Union,

Germany's center-right political party.

An alert circulated by Germany's BSI cyber agency and

reviewed by Reuters referred to the same incident, saying that

state-backed cyber spies were targeting German political parties

in an effort to build long-term access and exfiltrate data.

The alert did not give further details on who was

believed to be responsible and neither it nor Mandiant provided

details on who specifically was targeted. The BSI did not

immediately return a request for comment.

The Russian embassy in Washington also did not immediately

respond to an email requesting comment.

The alleged intrusion effort occurred one year after Germany

expelled 50 Russian diplomats to reportedly "reduce the presence

of Russian intelligence in Germany."

Relations between the two countries have remained largely

frozen, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in December.

Germany is among the Western nations that have provided military

support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.

Germany's Der Spiegel first reported on the alleged hacking

campaign earlier on Friday.