Yet widespread fears around online election interference, either promoted by foreign countries like Russia or amplified by fringe domestic groups spreading conspiracy theories around alleged voter fraud or Germany’s supposed misguided support for Ukraine, did not materialize. The country’s vote now joins a growing list of national elections — including scores during 2024 in which more than two billion people voted globally — where close scrutiny from regulators, national security officials and outside researchers has discovered that foreign actors’ both overt and clandestine efforts to sway voters’ decisions proved less successful than first imagined.