President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said that the National Security Agency surveillance is necessary to fight terrorism, but added that the government needs to "limit the appetite" of the agency with a clear set of ground rules.
Putin's comment at a major news conference was surprising support for President Barack Obama's administration, which has faced massive criticism over the sweeping electronic espionage program. Putin, a 16-year KGB veteran and the former chief of Russia's main espionage agency, said that while the NSA program "isn't a cause for joy, it's not a cause for repentance either" because it is needed to fight terrorism. He argued that it's necessary to monitor large numbers of people to expose terrorist contacts.
"On political level, it's necessary to limit the appetite of special services with certain rules," he said.Putin added that the efficiency of the effort and its damage to privacy is limited by the sheer inability to process such a huge amount of data.
Meanwhile, US legal and intelligence experts ordered by President Obama to review National Security Agency practices called for a sweeping overhaul of US surveillance programs while preserving "robust" intelligence capabilities.
The five-member panel of advisers also urged reforms at a secret national security court and an end to bulk retention of telephone "metadata" by the spy agency, by keeping those records in private hands subject to specific queries from the NSA or law enforcement. The 308-report also called for "significant steps" to be taken "to protect the privacy of non-US persons," and urged more cooperation with allies to avoid the diplomatic fallout from revelations of US intelligence gathering.