U.S. Ambassador to Russia Reveals Private Conversations Have Been Intercepted, Leaked Online

U.S. Ambassador to Russia Mike McFaul revealed Sunday that he has had his private conversations intercepted and disseminated in Russia.

Appearing on NBC’s Meet The Press, McFaul said, “As we remind all Americans who come to this country, the Russian government has tremendous capabilities, and we go by their law of intercepting phone calls, emails.” He was responding to State Department official Victoria Nuland’s conversation that was recently leaked in which she said, “F–k the E.U.” 

“There is no doubt that I am a primary subject of interest for them. And from time to time, they have also leaked conversations I have that I thought were private,” he said. “That’s just the state of working in Russia. It is interesting to me that this doesn’t get more attention to our credit. And of course, it goes beyond the pale of diplomatic protocol to – if indeed the Russians were responsible – to actually publish a private conversation between two American government officials.”

On CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS, McFaul revealed he had been very familiar with intimidation tactics in Russia even before he became U.S. Ambassador. He said that one of his intercepted conversations had been put on the Internet a couple years ago, before he became Ambassador.