A Russian official says the Kremlin is “amused” by a New York Times report claiming the country is listening in to President Trump’s personal phone calls.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the report, telling reporters Thursday the Kremlin regretted that the Times “thoughtlessly publishes information, which demonstrates the decreasing level of journalistic responsibility.”
“Nowadays, we tend to get amused at such publications,” he added, according to Russian News Agency TASS.
Peskov also said that the Kremlin might want to clarify the report since it “presumably has some detailed information” on the claim.
{mosads}The Times’ report claimed that aides have asked Trump to stop using three personal iPhones because of security concerns, but he has refused to give them up.
The story said that both China and Russia are listening in to Trump’s calls to gain a political edge.
China issued a similar response to the allegations on Thursday, claiming the story undermined the Times’ credibility.
“Firstly, the New York Times should know that such report just provides another piece of evidence that the NYT is making fake news,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters, according to The Associated Press.
Hua also suggested that Trump officials could switch to technology from Chinese company Huawei if “they are really concerned about security issues.”
The U.S. government has banned the use of technology from the Chinese telecommunications giant over security concerns.
Hua went one step further on Thursday, joking that Trump could “abandon all modern communication devices and cut off contact with the outside completely.”
Trump himself blasted the Times report on Twitter Thursday, saying that he only uses “government Phones, and have only one seldom used government cell phone.”
He called the report “more made up Fake News!”
Updated: 3:03 p.m.