Cannot link Steam account to Il2 account

[Uberick]

Hi all, I recently purchased IL2 from Steam, and want to link the game to my IL2 account so that I can continue to buy the rest of the expansions from here.  However, every time I try to link my Steam account in-game, it gives me an error "#4 Wrong Password or Email", even though my password and email are definitely correct (I use the same ones to log on to these forums successfully).

 

Does anyone have a fix/workaround?

 

Thanks in advance!  Fly safe!