The NSA Spied on Dmitry Medvedev, Too
It can generally be assumed that Russia and the U.S. are spying on each other at all times. Spies get busted on each side with some regularity. But the latest leak from Edward Snowden shows the National Security Agency once snooped former President Dmitry Medvedev's meta-data during a summit of world leaders. The Guardian reports the NSA office in Menwith Hill tracked Medvedev's communication signals back to the Russian embassy during the G20 summit in London in 2009, according to documents leaked by former government contractor Edward Snowden. The report doesn't reveal much beyond "a change in the way Russian leadership signals have been normally transmitted." The reports major details, per the Guardian:
The report says: "This is an analysis of signal activity in support of President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to London. The report details a change in the way Russian leadership signals have been normally transmitted. The signal activity was found to be emanating from the Russian embassy in London and the communications are believed to be in support of the Russian president."
But this is easily the highest profile snooping revealed by Snowden so far. While his other leaks have revealed wider operations on a very macro spying level, the Medvedev reveal shows very specific targeting of a top government official from one of the country's most uneasy allies.
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Russia and the U.S. spy on each other all the time. Russia recently expelled an American they said was a CIA spy who wore a funny wig. And who can forget the ring of Russian spies busted in the U.S. a few years ago who were allegedly building a network of spy children? But this reveal ahead of the scheduled G8 meetings that Obama and current Russian president Vladimir Putin will be attending my make things a little awkward. There's also that (disputed) matter of the stolen Super Bowl ring setting the table for a very strange conversation between the two world leaders.