MOSCOW, October 31. /TASS/. Reports of Russian intelligence agencies allegedly hacking former British Prime Minister Liz Truss’s phone should be treated as "tabloid reporting," Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"Unfortunately, British media outlets currently offer few reports that can be taken seriously. We view such publications as ‘tabloid reporting’," he noted, commenting on reports about leaks from Truss’s phone.
The Mail on Sunday newspaper alleged on October 29 that "Liz Truss's personal mobile phone was hacked by agents suspected of working for the Kremlin." The paper cited sources in British security services, who said that Truss’s phone had been hacked when she was serving as Foreign Secretary. The hack was discovered in July, shortly before Truss entered a race for prime minister. According to the newspaper’s sources, perpetrators got access to a year’s worth of Truss’s messages, including sensitive information and the details of London’s talks with its key allies, as well as to information about weapons supplies to Ukraine. The details were suppressed by Boris Johnson, who headed the British cabinet at the time, because it could have prevented Truss from becoming prime minister. The paper added that "the astonishing incident, disclosed by security sources, solves the mystery of why Ms Truss was forced to change the mobile number she had used for over a decade shortly before becoming Prime Minister."