Russian UN envoy Vitaly Churkin has no doubts that American secret services are wiretapping his phone and bug his office.
"I am sure they do", - he answered the corresponding question of the First Channel journalist of "Sunday time" program.
"However, I presume that I am always wiretapped and bugged as an official person. We got the "cold war", that is it does not influence me somehow," the Russian UN envoy said.
"I have no doubts that my cell phone is wiretapped - it is obvious and I always have to keep it in mind. Of course, we have secret offices, where I can discuss some issues with my colleagues in confidence. But even if these rooms are not eavesdropped, I always have to assume that I am."
US to increase the efficiency of electronic surveillance against Russia
US intelligence agencies are trying to achieve the expansion of the zone, which could be monitored by means of American satellites on the territory of Russia, Ukraine and the Baltic States, as well as improve the efficiency of interception of phone calls and other conversations in these countries.
According to the sources in Obama's administration, the US officials hope that the new equipment and the staff increase of the analysts will help to spy more efficiently on the Russian troops. It will help the US to understand the intentions of the Russian authorities before they take effect.
This decision was made due to the fact that during the Ukrainian crisis the US intelligence acted inefficiently, especially considering the tapping of the phone calls of Russian politicians and military.
As the representative of the US administration said, the Russian troops, which are located near the Russian border with Ukraine, interest the US intelligence agencies most of all at present time.
Sweden spying on Russian business targets, including energy - report
It wasn't just Russia's leadership featuring in the spy crosshairs of Sweden's intelligence. It now seems Sweden was engaged in industrial espionage against business targets including Russian energy companies, Sveriges Television reports and inevitably, the information was shared with the NSA.
Sweden's intelligence agency, the National Defense Radio Establishment (FRA), has spied on Russian officials, businessmen and companies and shared intelligence information with the US National Security Agency (NSA), according to a documentary broadcast by Sweden's Sveriges Television (SVT) on Thursday.
Gazprom and other Russian companies were among the targets of FRA's industrial espionage.
In the film, a source confirmed that the FRA had "a very obvious interest in looking at the Russian companies". "Gazprom was one possible target and there were many other, smaller players," the source said, adding that it was "a part of the mission".
Commenting for the documentary on close ties between the FRA and the NSA, investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald said, citing information leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, that they "work together when they perceive that their interests are mutually aligned and share information readily about a whole variety of topics, again having nothing to do with national security, including the energy sector in Russia". "The NSA seems impressed," he added, "by how much money and how much technological sophistication the Swedish have been able to assemble when building their own surveillance system".
Earlier, Swedish Defense Minister Karin Enstrom, said in an interview that Sweden needed to protect its national security. "We need to conduct intelligence operations to protect Sweden against external threats," she said.
According to the latest leaks however, the FRA has clearly been spying on Russian energy companies for economic advantage, rather than national security.
In September, another investigative reporter, Duncan Campbell, disclosed information about Sweden's ties to the NSA during a hearing on the latter's mass phone-tapping and electronic surveillance at the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties. He revealed that Sweden provided the NSA and Britain's GCHQ spy agency with access to Baltic underwater cables and was the third major partner in surveillance cooperation.
Sweden spied on Russia for NSA according to new Snowden leak - report
Sweden has provided the US with "unique" intelligence on Russia's leadership, according to new documents leaked by US fugitive Edward Snowden and revealed Thursday by Swedish public broadcaster SVT.
The documents indicate that the US National Security Agency (NSA) sees Sweden's signals intelligence agency, FRA, as a "leading partner" in the surveillance of telecom and Internet traffic, particularly from Russia.
"The FRA provided NSA... unique collection on high-priority Russian targets, such as leadership, internal politics," according to a document dated April 18, 2013 and obtained by SVT from the American journalist Glenn Greenwald who has published details of numerous NSA files leaked by Snowden.
Another document underlined Sweden's notable access to Russia's communication network thanks to cables passing through Swedish territory.
"Thank Sweden for its continued work on the Russian target, and underscore the primary role that FRA plays as a leading partner to Work the Russian Target, including Russian leadership... (and) counterintelligence. FRA's cable access has resulted in unique SIGINT (signals intelligence) reporting on all of these areas."
Fredrik Wallin, a spokesman for the FRA, refused to confirm that Sweden had spied on the Russian leadership and said the suggestion that Sweden had a leading role was "very flattering".
Swedish Defence Minister Karin Enstroem told SVT it was no surprise that the country cooperated with other intelligence services.
"Sweden builds its security together with others," she said. "But which countries and which methods we use are not public information.
"Earlier this year British journalist Duncan Campbell alleged that Sweden was the British intelligence agency's "biggest partner" outside the English speaking world.
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