Russia's Foreign Ministry advises Europe to fear 'big brother' the United States

"The EU should be wary of the 'big brother' the United States, not imaginary hackers from Russia, because the US regularly monitors Europeans or lures them into espionage, as was clearly shown by the case of former CIA officer Edward Snowden," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

“Europeans, and not only them, should not be afraid of imaginary Russian hackers and Chinese IT specialists, but of their “big brother” the United States, who constantly monitors them, eavesdrops on them, thereby exposing the false myth of their own cyber innocence,” Zakharova wrote on Telegram.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, there are times when Washington "spies on its allies itself, and there are also times when it urges its allies' younger brothers and sisters to spy for it in the spirit of solidarity."

Ms. Zakarova noted that at the end of May, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) delivered its final judgment "in the case related to the facts revealed by Snowden about the mass theft of personal data of millions of Europeans by US intelligence with the help of Britain and Sweden and their spying."

“The ECHR has confirmed the previous conclusions of courts at all levels that the actions of Washington and London have violated a number of provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights,” the diplomat said.

Specifically, the provisions relating to the right to respect for private and family life and freedom of speech were violated. At the time of the above violations and the trial, the UK was still a member of the EU and was bound by the provisions established in the “Unified Europe” on the protection of privacy and personal data, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman stressed.

She added that the proceedings, which have been ongoing since 2013, "have examined all cases of private messages intercepted by the United States and the United Kingdom, using data obtained from other countries' intelligence agencies as well as communications service providers".

“Everything that from a Western moral point of view is considered absolutely impossible, turns out to be possible if desired,” Ms. Zakharova wrote.