El Pais: Who hears and records the calls of heads of state?

The Spanish newspaper El Pais says that the talks of heads of government are usually recorded or kept in the memos, classified according to the degree of confidentiality, and wondering who is entitled to hear the calls of heads of state.

The newspaper notes that the telephone conversation between US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelinsky provoked a political storm that could lead to the removal of President Trump from office.

She adds that many officials keep notes on the calls of presidents, which may be announced later, and that all countries have protocols on recording the calls of their leaders and how to classify them according to the degree of confidentiality, and include some examples:

Russia
Russia is working similarly to the United States, and state agencies are keen to record all talks and calls by Russian President Vladimir Putin with international leaders.

The Kremlin favors keeping the content of calls between Putin and Trump under strict secrecy, she said.

She pointed out that the Russian Federal Security Service is one of the highest intelligence agencies in Russia, which is dealing with the President's telephone conversations, and that a source of this service told the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets that they have an interpreter for this purpose even if the speakers have a good knowledge of the common language, The team also included a communications engineer and members of the Chairman's team.

The FSB owns call records of all kinds, whether in the form of sound recordings, text notes, or both, and that these records are a secret of the Russian state, and Russia once threatened to publish one of those calls.

France
French President Emmanuel Macron's talks with the rest of the world remain in the notes of his diplomatic advisers, but not all talks are always recorded.

Presidential documents are usually transmitted to archive files once the president's term ends and remains confidential for 25 years, which can be extended up to 50 years if they affect the vital interests of the state.

Italia
The newspaper pointed out that the talks between the prime ministers and other heads of state pass through the diplomatic office of the Keiji Palace, which is the seat of government, and attributed to a source affiliated to the government palace to say that "some calls are made through a protected line and safe, others are recorded."

She adds that calls are usually recorded and placed in the archive files, as these calls are not public and received only when requested by the Italian judiciary, and says that the presidency works differently, with sources from the Quirinal Palace confirmed that the talks held by the current President Sergio Matarella .

Germany
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's telephone conversations do not record or write her texts. In fact, some individuals close to Merkel, who are an integral part of the decision-making process, listen to certain conversations with the chancellor's approval and when they deem it necessary.

For its part, the German Chancellery refuses to make official statements on the matter out of consideration as an internal procedure.

The German intelligence services are not part of this small group that can listen to Merkel's talks. A spokeswoman for the German domestic intelligence agency is quoted as saying from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution: "We are not listening to any conversation of Chancellor Merkel." The privacy of communications is protected by Article 10 of the German Constitution.

The newspaper quotes the spokeswoman as saying that "contacts are very protected in Germany," and that the state could set up an ad hoc government committee that would have access to the content of the talks on extremely exceptional issues related to terrorism, adding that sources from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution confirmed that "this issue involves a so complicated".