MOSCOW, June 1. /TASS/. The recent reports claiming that Danish intelligence services collaborated with the US in spying on European politicians are just "the tip of the iceberg," and NATO member-states have no idea what is happening on their soil, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday on the Soloviev Live YouTube channel.
"I think this is just the tip of the iceberg, and the situation is even more dire for NATO member states themselves," she emphasized.
Zakharova pointed out that NATO and EU states deliberately dodge this subject. "It is very uncomfortable, but the truth is far more frightening than what the media rarely reports on. I think they have no idea what is happening in their domain," the diplomat insisted.
"The US has removed itself from any legal reference point, and they are supervising everyone and everything. <…> Perhaps they decided to toss their vassal partners a bone, allowing them to bend the rules as well," Zakharova specified.
On Sunday, the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, the ARD and WDR TV companies, as well as a number of media outlets in Denmark and Sweden reported that in 2013, Danish intelligence collaborated with the US National Security Agency (NSA) in spying on European politicians. According to media reports, the espionage agencies in question used a facility located near Copenhagen for wiretapping activities. The NSA scandal broke in 2013, when Der Spiegel published revelations by former CIA employee Edward Snowden. Since then, more and more details about the story have surfaced. As it turned out, US intelligence had been spying on thousands of targets in Europe, eavesdropping on German citizens and even tapping into German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone several times.
In 2014, the head of the Danish Defense Intelligence Service initiated a secret internal investigation regarding the NSA’s use of XKeyscore, intended for observing countries that neighbor Denmark. The investigation, codenamed Dunhammer, was wrapped up in 2015, and its results were sent to the intelligence leadership. Five years later, an informant revealed this to the defense ministry’s top officials, after which its Minister Trine Bramsen dismissed a number of leading intelligence officers.