EXCERPT In 1945, under instructions from the NKVD, Russian intelligence operatives planted a passive covert listening device—designed by Léon Theremin and concealed inside a carved, wooden replica of the Great Seal of the United States of America—in the American embassy in Moscow. The bugged seal was gifted to the USA by members of the Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Youth Organization and, once installed, was sensitive to remote activation by means of a microwave signal transmitted in the vicinity of the embassy building…