In January 1968, France sold to USSR equipment to securely cypher the direct line between Kremlin and Elysée (The French equivalent of US White House). The price of the equipment was about 125,000F. The simplified description of the equipment clearly shows that it is based on One Time Pad. The devices were encrypting and decrypting with random tape (appareils de chiffrement et de déchiffrement par bandes aléatoires).

It was common knowledge that the protection of White House and Kremlin’s direct line was one time pad. It was also the case for the line between France and USSR but with French equipment.

Are they still using one time pads? or less theoretically secure systems but more user friendly?

For more information, read Quand l’Elysée équipait le Kremlin (in French)