Source: Day
A new diplomatic scandal is erupting between Washington and Moscow. The cause is Russia’s refusal to extradite Edward Snowden, a former CIA and US National Security Agency operative, who arrived in Moscow from Hong Kong. It will be recalled that the US has pressed espionage charges against Snowden who disclosed the US secret services’ program to collect information on telephone and Internet users.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was on a visit to Finland the day before yesterday, refused to extradite Snowden on legal grounds and confirmed that the US citizen was still held at Moscow Sheremetyevo airport. Putin said that accusations against Russia were “nonsense and a load of bull” and expressed a hope that the Snowden case would not affect the “businesslike nature” of US-Russian relations.
Incidentally, public opinion in the US itself has divided into those who consider him a hero and those who demand that he be tried for high treason. The Snowden case has sparked a heated debate all over the world on the fine line between state security protection and interference into private life.
The Day asked Lilia Shevtsova, a senior associate at the Carnegie Moscow Center, to comment on the Snowden affair and say what can be the consequences of the fact that the Kremlin refuses to extradite the ex-CIA agent.
“Any secret service, be it Russian, Ecuadorian, Ukrainian, or Guatemalan, would not miss an opportunity to pressure Snowden into giving some information which could be then used in a diplomatic, political, or any other game. It is only natural.
“But what matters for me in this story is perhaps different. The Snowden case looks very much like the story of Assange who now hosts a program of his own at the Russian state-run TV channel Russia Today and is fully engaged in propaganda work.
“Both Assange and Snowden are people who have in fact discredited a Western state. Moreover, they have discredited a special state – the United States of America – the world’s only power that holds sway, by revealing some dark secrets of the US governmental machine and diplomacy. And, naturally, every state, including one that considers itself a liberal democracy, will try to react in some way to the danger of being undermined. But, at the same time, both Assange and Snowden have largely benefited civil society which is interested in knowing as much as possible about the dark nooks of any state, be it authoritarian or liberal.
“But a different thing is interesting here: the way Russia and, perhaps to some extent, China is trying to cash in on the instances of exposing the dark sides of the US ruling system. We can see that the Russian and Chinese states, which are by and large hostile to America, are trying to use both Snowden and Assange in their own interests to discredit liberal democracies – above all, the US. And, undoubtedly, the Kremlin is going to use the Snowden case in its own interests to crack down on democratic freedoms. And now the MP Zhelezniak, who belongs to the pack of young wolves who are trying to substantiate and legitimize the Russian leadership’s repressive onslaught, is offering an initiative to establish a sovereign Internet – in other words, to bring the Internet under state control. And this is already being done. The Snowden case and his revelations of dark US corridors will only encourage the state to put heavier skids under our Internet.”
How can we then characterize Putin’s reaction to the US request to extradite Snowden?
“What the Russian President Putin is saying is a total metaphor. Firstly, he is a metaphor buff. Secondly, he has in fact admitted that Snowden still remains in the Russian transit area. And Snowden cannot possibly be in the transit area, say, in the toilet or a refreshment room, without being shadowed by Russian secret agents. Of course, the secret services will sooner or later let the ‘loaded’ Snowden go. In what direction? It’s difficult to say. But I don’t think Snowden will cause a break in or an abrupt cooling-down of relations between Moscow and Washington. The White House does not intend to cool down its relations with Russia now.”
But what about Senator McCain’s call to revise the relations with Russia and the Forbes’ claim that Putin will regret helping Snowden?
“McCain never stops saying this. It is his profession. He constantly – and in many cases justly – criticizes Russia. He is sort of an acid paper that says to the US administration: look, the Republican Party is watching your movements. But no matter how hard McCain urged the administration to break off relations with Russia and oust it from the G8, this produced no results. Therefore, McCain’s calls are just rhetoric, while Obama’s Moscow policy is practice. And Obama is not going to let the Snowden case undermine the already frail system of relations with Russia. These relations are important for him because Russia should help him maintain the myth he has created about himself as fighter for a nuclear-free world. He will be unable to maintain this myth without Russian help.”
Incidentally, is the US request to extradite Snowden well founded?
“From the viewpoint of the US government, of what John Kerry and Administration representatives are saying, it is a well-founded demand. It is obviously based on the US law. They may be right to demand that Moscow extradite Snowden. But, on the other hand, I think the Kremlin will find a way to get rid of Snowden after squeezing any useful information from him. The Kremlin is now pondering on how to get out of this situation without losing its own face. It will hardly give Snowden away directly. In all probability, they will put him on a plane bound for Venezuela, Guatemala, or Cuba. This story will end up, as any other spy stories did, with an exchange of spies. This story is just a detail. It in fact mirrors the US government’s problems and shows the frailty of US-Russian relations. But, at the same time, this story is not a sufficiently strong factor to lead to some radical changes in these relations.
“I do not rule out a different thing. Should Snowden settle somewhere, Russia or, say, China may suggest that he host his own program on state-run Russian or Chinese TV channels. If Assange can do this, why not Snowden? So far, Assange has done more harm to America than Snowden.”
Obviously, this scandal is damaging the prestige of Obama and his party. Does this mean that the Republican candidate will be able to defeat Hillary Clinton in the next US presidential elections?
“I absolutely agree with you that Obama’s popularity is on the decline, and he is losing chances to remain in the US history as a successful and effective president. He has a very short time span – in fact one or one and a half years before he becomes a lame duck unable to do anything. And if the Democratic Party does not succeed in the next Congressional elections, he will be opposed by a Republican-controlled Congress which will be thwarting all his decisions. And now Obama has contrived to make so many mistakes and such a mess in not so much foreign as domestic policy, in which he resembles his predecessor Bush, that his rating is plummeting. Much more Americans mistrust, rather than trust, Obama now. The very fact of this is, of course, undermining not only Obama, who had and blew a chance in the US history, but also the chances of the Democratic Party. And, of course, Hillary Clinton is striving to come out on the political stage, and she is likely to run for the Democratic candidate. But, at the same time, she has an advantage because the Republicans still do not have a serious candidature to oppose the Democrats. Therefore, with just a few years to go, the Republicans have a very slim chance to put forward a brilliant personality which will manage to rally them all together. The Congressional election, to be held next year, will be a test of this.”