Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any reasons to believe otherwise? The only thing I hold against him is his failure, as promised, to hang Georgian president by his balls. Eating necktie is a weak substitute.
Being president of a large country pretty much guarantees you've had to lie and cheat at least a little bit to get there. For one random example (not being a huge student of 21st century Russia), he promised Bush that he wasn't arming Saddam's troops. Turned out they were outfitted with a lot of Russian anti-tank and night vision gear when we got there.
Snowden asylum still under review, stays in airport for now
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Re: Snowden asylum still under review, stays in airport for now
#142It seems he accepted Putin's terms to not release anymore information. I wonder if that means no more information coming out, period, or that since most/all of the information is now with third parties that it's their responsibility. I doubt Putin likes being disrespected with loopholes and technicalities, but I more-so doubt that Snowden would halt the revelations altogether for the sake of his own safety. I suspect…
Now the headline has changed to: "Snowden asylum still under review, stays in airport for now - lawyer" ... so it seems RT popped their cork too early. Explains why the Guardian didn't cover this yet.
"Federal migration service has not issued documents allowing Edward Snowden to leave the airport yet, there was a misinformation today in the media, said Kucherena."
http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_07_24/Edward-Snowden-leaves-Sher...
Re: Snowden asylum still under review, stays in airport for now
#143I wonder if his next target is Wladiwostok. It seems less complicated to get to Latin America from there, if he still wants to.
There are no direct flights. You have to connect through Tokyo or Shanghai or the USA.
By complicated I mainly meant the countries he does not have to fly over.
Re: Snowden asylum still under review, stays in airport for now
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
to be fair sneaking out of russia is probably not that hard given the huge land borders of the country.
If you've ever been near a russian land border, you'd know sneaking ain't an option - they're still very much into their 30 foot razor wire fences, and mile wide minefields. AFAIK, the only borders which aren't demarked as such are those which ramble across incredibly inhospitable desert, which serves the same purpose as razor wire and mines.
Re: Snowden asylum still under review, stays in airport for now
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
Granting asylum to Snowden will just influence relations between US and Russia,and is not done to be coherent with previous standings of the country on the topic of human rights,almost always different. We have to be careful not to associate concepts like "freedom of speech" and "example of democracy" with countries like Russia, given the actual situation the people there live under I am not sure we can say Russia ho…
Can't agree more (Russian here). In Russia it's all about putting up a show of anti-americanism, because that's what the voters like (the one thing that brings back memories of relative security of late Soviet days). Think Osama bin Laden granting asylum to Snowden in some remote Taliban camp.
Think Osama bin Laden granting asylum to Snowden in some remote Taliban camp.
Strange, I am Russian and have been living in Russia for 5 years now (and before that for 20 years in the UK and Holland). And I cannot agree with your Taliban analogy even remotely. Actually, life in Russia today in some ways feels more free than in Europe. For example you don't need to be politically correct (self-censoring) when expressing your private or political views. And one can still (for now) smoke in pubs here ;)Re: Snowden asylum still under review, stays in airport for now
#146Re: Snowden asylum still under review, stays in airport for now
#147Re: Snowden asylum still under review, stays in airport for now
#148Re: Snowden asylum still under review, stays in airport for now
#149It seems he accepted Putin's terms to not release anymore information. I wonder if that means no more information coming out, period, or that since most/all of the information is now with third parties that it's their responsibility. I doubt Putin likes being disrespected with loopholes and technicalities, but I more-so doubt that Snowden would halt the revelations altogether for the sake of his own safety. I suspect…
My guess is Putin requested this to placate the US rather than out of concern. Yesterday the US and Russia both announced they'd be arming opposing sides in Syria, so placating the US might not be as big a priority now. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-russia-simultaneously-annou...
Seriously, if you're going to fight a war fight an economic war, much less destructive to other people than the little proxy wars the big boys seems to love so much.