US spied on Russia with Sweden’s help

Leaked documents from the US National Security Agency show Washington has spied on Russia’s leadership with the help of Sweden’s intelligence service.

According to a document seen by Swedish television, information collected about Russian politicians by Sweden’s National Defense Radio Establishment (FRA), which conducts electronic communications surveillance, has been handed over to the NSA.

The document, dated April 18th, 2013, describes Sweden’s FRA as a “leading partner” for the US spy agency in its spying operations around the world.

“The FRA provided NSA (…) unique collection on high-priority Russian targets, such as leadership, internal politics,” reads the document which was obtained by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

In another document, high-ranking NSA officials are directed to “thank Sweden for its continued work on the Russian target, and underscore the primary role that FRA plays as a leading partner to work the Russian target, including Russian leadership … and … counterintelligence.”

Other leaked NSA documents also showed last month that the NSA spied on the G8 and G20 summits held in the Canadian city of Toronto in 2010, with the help of the host country’s government. The spying operation was “closely coordinated with the Canadian partner,” according to the document seen by CBC News.

It was also made public in October that Washington has been secretly using Australian embassies throughout Asia to intercept phone calls and collect data across the continent.

Yet, other disclosed documents showed Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) helped the NSA monitor phone calls and email communications of foreign leaders and diplomats at the 2009 G20 summit in London.

Since early June, documents after documents disclosed by Snowden have shed some light on the scope and scale of Washington’s spying activities across the globe.

The latest case of such revelations, reported by the Washington Post on Wednesday, show the NSA is collecting billions of cellphone records from around the world each day.