Russia Gives Snowden Asylum
According to press reports, Russia has granted that damned turncoat former NSA contractor Eric Snowden “refugee status“. Reportedly, he’s been granted a one year temporary asylum and has been allowed to leave Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.
Raise your hand if you’re surprised. Yeah – me neither. I’d guess the Russian intelligence folks are probably already debriefing him in detail and going through every scrap of information he brought with him as part of the deal.
But hey – the current Administration has restored respect for the US worldwide, right?
Yeah, right. A diplomatic slap in the face is a truly strange sign of respect.
Somehow I just don’t see this happening 5 or 6 years ago. But maybe that’s just me.
Category: Politics
Is it wrong of me to wish we had a President like Vladimir Putin, as opposed to “Mr Mom Jeans”?
AW1 If you mean “has a pair”, then no not at all.
The only thing I’m surprised about is that the Russians took so long to grant that giant jackhole asylum.
The Russians will trust him. Sure they will. If he’s lucky, he’ll get his one-room, steam-heated, paper-thin walled, shared-bathroom flat that fronts a busy street. But at least he’ll have his 1958 Kelvinator and maybe a TV.
Hondo, he’s staying in Russia because no other country wants him. His quests for asylum have been repeatedly turned down. What else are they going to do with him? Oh, right — they could send him to Siberia, to live in Irkutsk as a tourist attraction, or to Ukraine to live in one of those deserted apartment buildings in Chernobyl. There are huge catfish, up to 8 feet long (saw the videos) farking around in the ponds over there. Plenty of fruit trees, plenty of hunting. He’d never starve. He could be a tour guide.
Vlad is on a photo-ops roll right now. It’ll be great PR for his next campaign for office.
Ex-PH2: as the famous Russian immigrant comic Yakov Smirnov might say: “Eye . . . don’ tink zo.”
The Russian intelligence services are still exceptionally good. They’ve been in the business of enticing/entrapping/turning others with info they want for a long time, too. And based on where Snowden worked and the type of work he did – and what he’s disclosed so far – I’m guessing the Russian FSS was very interested in talking to Snowden.
My guess is that Snowden was kept in Sheremetyevo Airport by design – and was told, discretely, that the cost of asylum was full cooperation with Russia’s FSS. I wouldn’t put it past the Russians to have discouraged a number of other nations from offering him asylum (they could always use the cover that they were interested in “promoting good relations with the US” to explain that). They obviously didn’t facilitate his departure for any of the few nations that did offer him asylum.
They’ll never really trust Snowden, of course – but they’ll almost certainly pump everything of significance he knows out of him. And they’ll discard him when he’s no longer useful. Perhaps when his year’s asylum runs out, or maybe they’ll keep him in reserve as “trade material” for the future. Or maybe he gets killed in an “unfortunate traffic accident” somewhere in Moscow.
The Russians play this game for keeps.
I know, Hondo. But do we have anyone like Rudolf Abel incarcerated any more, who could be traded for Snowden? Gilenicker Bridge is just another bridge in Berlin these days.
I don’t think the Russians would be interested in any of the AQs down in Gitmo.
Man, the Cold War days were a lot more fun.
The shit this guy is spilling as we speak is probably making Manning’s data dump look like child’s play.
And it might even rival Aldrich Ames or the Walker/Whitworth idiots.
At least you knew, during the Cold War, that if you lived anywhere near a military base like Chanute near Champaign, or a Caterpillar factory in Decatur, you were a targe of a potential missile strike. You could build a bomb shelter in your back yard if you were really paranoid enough. You knew who was who and what was what.
From what I hear, even Vlad Putin is kind of nostalgic for the late 1970s.
There is a reason why Pres. Reagan called it the Evil Empire.
Wait a minute! We “pressed the reset button” with the Kremlin! I have the photo of the head walrus at Sec of State holding it. They all love us and respect us now. ObOzo says so. I’m so confused……
One of the all time greatest spy novels is called “The Defection of A. J. LeWinter” – should be required reading. Throughout, the US is trying to convince the USSR that a valuable defector is worthless, and the USSR is both trying to determine his worth and communicate to the US that they don’t believe him. (Example – the US tries to kill him, so the USSR will overtly take him seriously and then discout him because they suspect the US of disinformation. It’s layers within layers.) Reminds me a LOT of Snowden.
Putin is just yanking Obama’s chain with all the drama. He know that despite all of the ‘we’re going to get Assad’ rhetoric, Obama has no balls for the real James Bond kind of stuff which lets Putin do whatever he wants to. Snowden is going to really regret playing the Wikileaks card.
Snowden was granted asylum after releasing further information that NSA also monitors email traffic (which NSA denies). Snowden’s worth to the Russians may have increased dramatically, if he can prove that he can access our emails. Our telephone traffic wouldn’t interest the Russians, I don’t think — but our email traffic? Oh, I can see where that would be of great interest to them. Snowden may be capable of helping them do just that.
I should invite Vlad to my house for dinner. We could go fishing at Sand Lake, roast some kielbasa over a campfire, sing some songs… just like the good ol’ days.
God, I miss Communisim. The Red Threat, people were scared… the agency had some respect, and I got laid every night. -George Kaplan
I have to agree with 2/17 Air Cav and Ex-PH2, I’ve toured the Ukraine, and their Krushchev-era built housing is nothing to brag about. I’m sure he’ll get a flea-bitten home in one of those, and as soon as they have what they want, Putin & Co. will put him out to pasture like they did with Kim Philby!
What I find interesting is that it’s been reported he’s staying with American citizens living on Russia.
Who are these people ?
Hmmm, THIS inquiring mind would like to know, too!
I say leave the SOB right where he’s at, all this bullshit about having he brought back to he states to stand trial is a bunch of bull shit, for my vote he can rot in hell. Enough said.
I agree, Sam – he should rot in hell. I’d just prefer to see him do so sooner rather than later.