MOSCOW, July 10. /TASS/. Foreign intelligence services are operating intensively in Russia, but the nation’s counter-intelligence agencies work persistently to foil their activities. Regardless of that fact, there is no spy mania in Russia, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.
"It’s no secret that foreign intelligence services are not slacking off in Russia, they work day and night against Russian officials, and Russian intelligence officers," the spokesman said, adding that "[Russian] counter-intelligence, which thwarts their activities, is not sitting back either."
"Compared, for example, with the US and the EU, there is no spy mania in Russia," Peskov said, adding that he is unaware whether the number of espionage cases is really on the rise in Russia.
"These cases have been on the agenda for about two decades, I remember this right, [but] I do not know whether there are more or less of them today," the spokesman said, attributing the recent surge of espionage cases in the public eye to greater transparency.
"I would rather attribute the resonance in various fields in recent years to growing transparency, to the rise of new multimedia capabilities, and to [the emergence] of new media and new information streams," Peskov said. "These [espionage cases] have always been there."