Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited the U.S. last week for a high-stakes but relaxed burger summit with President Obama and a tour of the Twitter headquarters, where he set up his first account. But Medvedev, much like the 11 alleged Russian spies that were arrested on Monday, may have had another, top-secret reason for coming here. That mission? Crate-digging for some sweet vintage vinyl. The Washington Post's Reliable Source blog uncovers it all:

Two Russian women who said they worked for Medvedev walked into Som Records on 14th Street Thursday looking for Duke Ellington, B.B. King and Jimi Hendrix recordings -- Medvedev, 44, is a big jazz and rock fan and collects rare records. Owner Neal Becton told us he was out of Ellington discs, but sold the women three Hendrix records, two by King, plus music by Gil Evans, Blossom Dearie and Mark Murphy. The women, who got instructions from someone via cellphone, paid the $150 tab in cash -- two $100 bills.

"Wax Fanatical" blogger Jake Grovum can hardly contain himself:

I don't know what's more amazing to me about this story though. The fact that Medvedev, who is 44 according to The Post, is into vinyl enough that he'd send staffers out during a diplomatic trip to Washington to specifically to a record store. Or, on the other hand, that somewhere between working in the Kremlin and sitting atop the Russian oil monopoly Gazprom that he developed such great taste in music, although Wikipedia says he was a big Black Sabbath (!) and Deep Purple (!!) fan in high school.

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