Russia calls Trump phone wiretapping allegations 'ridiculous'

"This is an example of the current absurdity. The New York Times accused Russia of wiretapping US President Donald Trump's phone without citing any official sources or data. Meanwhile, the US has admitted to wiretapping German Chancellor Angela Merkel and has a lot of data to verify it,"TASSquoted Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying today.

The New York Times revealed on October 25 that US intelligence agencies determined that Russia and China were eavesdropping on Trump's personal phone calls to collect information they could use to influence US policy.

According to the newspaper, China monitors the people Trump talks to the most to compile a list of people to target to propagate pro-China messages, while Russia eavesdrops on phone calls to get a good look at the US President's thinking.

Ms. Zakharova emphasized that if the US media is interested in this topic, they should focus on US politics and how Washington uses surveillance equipment to monitor its partners, especially NATO allies.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the US newspaper had published information that was "thoughtless, showing the decline of journalistic responsibility", asserting that the US media needed to clarify this information. "We now find such articles ridiculous," Peskov said.

During work calls, Trump used a secure White House landline. However, the New York Times said that Trump ignored warnings from his aides and always used three personal iPhones to chat with friends and relatives. In a subsequent Twitter post, Trump denied the accusation, asserting that he rarely used a cell phone and often used a White House landline.