dagblog - Comments for "Russia Offers Asylum to Russian Dissidents"

On the other hand, Anna

artappraiser — Sat, 10 Aug 2013 21:40:20 +0000

In reply to Interesting. Thanks for this.

On the other hand, Anna Nemtsova @ Foreign Policy argues convincingly against this game playing having much import in Russia or with Putin

Putin Walks Alone
Why the American president's cancellation of their pending summit meeting is just a blip on Vladimir Putin's radar.

August 9

[....] is President Obama's decision to cancel his trip to Moscow weighing on Putin's mind? Most Moscow analysts agree that the Russian president is not greatly worried. News of the cancellation never made top headlines in the Russian mainstream media. A story like that would be out of place in the context of the television narrative of Putin as a strong, proud man fighting for Russia's sovereignty.

"Channel One and Rossiya Channel have the biggest number of viewers -- their managers must have decided not to explain to Russians that Obama's move was actually Russia's defeat," radio journalist Sergei Darenko told me.

Kremlin insiders say that in this presidential term, Putin is much more focused on his image at home than on how he's seen in the West. His priorities lie in the Russian public's perception of his legacy and of what he wants to achieve for the country. "Obama is not as important as the situation at home and economic issues," says Yevgeny Gontmakher, deputy director of INSOR, a think tank advising the Kremlin.

While President Obama recently accused Putin of having a Cold War mentality, the unfortunate truth is that it's not a tenable position.

"Our modernization of the army has failed, while America's defense ministry budget is equivalent to Russia's entire national budget. Putin knows better than anybody else that there is no room in the Kremlin for any Cold War ideas," says military expert Aleksander Golts [....]

And when she said His priorities lie in the Russian public's perception of his legacy I sort of re-thought some of the things he said about Snowden in that light. People like you, but in Russia, razzing him about his civil rights record might just have had something to do with this all...?

Putin never said Snowden had

Lazy KGB — Sat, 10 Aug 2013 18:43:36 +0000

In reply to It's true, Russia is no

Putin never said Snowden had to stop leaking; what he said was:

“If he wants to stay here, there is one condition: He must stop his activities aimed at inflicting damage on our American partners, no matter how strange it may sound coming from my lips.”

Putin proceeded to say (per the Washington Times):

Snowden doesn’t want to stop his efforts to reveal information about the U.S. surveillance program likely because he considers himself a rights activist and a “new dissident,” Putin said.

“Just because he feels that he is a human rights defender, a rights activist, he doesn’t seem to have any intention to stop such work,” Putin said.

...and he compared Snowden to Andrei Sakharov.

Nowhere does Putin reject the activist interpretation - which is definitely an archetype not typically associated with an intent to inflict harm. It honestly seems like Putin is endorsing the view. Shortly after, Russia granted asylum without any further clarification.

Accepting a political refugee with the caveat of a political-speech gag order would be pretty far out from international norms ... and Putin's game would certainly be best served by papering Snowden without prejudice.

It seems pretty obvious Putin has been playing word games with Obama ... just like Obama has been playing with everyone else. It's pretty clear Team Obama is inordinately pissed at Team Putin - if Snowden were effectively gagged, I don't think that would necessarily be the case. Snowden is very likely free to communicate however he pleases.

That said. It was somewhat widely reported that Snowden has seeded all the documents in several places that could be retrieved by others in case something happened to him. So, I think your general assessment that the technical act of "leaking" the documents has already been accomplished is sound (unless we adopt a FISA interpretation of things, in which case the documents won't be considered leaked - or even collected - until they are published in an official report).

Cogent points. You could say,

NCD — Sat, 10 Aug 2013 16:00:39 +0000

In reply to Kerry never said the actions

Cogent points.

You could say, considering the Civil War, and the fact that the South was put under northern military rule after the war for a matter of years (see LOC, March 2, 1867 "An Act to provide for a more efficient Government of the Rebel States"), that our 'democracy' was on very thin ice for 90 years.

Kerry never said the actions

Lazy KGB — Sat, 10 Aug 2013 15:47:04 +0000

In reply to Thanks. You always have to be

Kerry never said the actions taken by the Egyptian military were an example of democracy. He said their purpose was to restore democracy. IMO, where he misspoke was to imply that Egypt has yet truly achieved a functional democracy that might be restored.

The Egyptian people are attempting to *create* a democracy - and in the reasonably early stages of establishing how to make that work for their society. For whatever reason many Americans expect other nations to manifest in weeks (or months if they're being difficult) what took our revolutionaries almost a decade of painful conflict and war to establish. And we love to harshly judge them every step of the way.

And for the record, Obama tried to prop up Morsi until he couldn't do it any longer. Morsi was VERY on board with our desired strategy in Syria. The policy has been tossed into disarray with the loss of his virulently anti-Assad administration as a core component to our regional approach.

American interests crave stability within our sphere. Kerry didn't want it to happen in the first place and is trying to put a diplomatic face on things ... which is, after all, his job.

Interesting. Obama suggested

Lazy KGB — Sat, 10 Aug 2013 15:15:50 +0000

In reply to Russia Offers Asylum to Russian Dissidents

Interesting. Obama suggested an almost identical offer was open to Snowden just last night.

Sadly, our president did not appear to be making an attempt at satire.

Interesting. Thanks for this.

Michael Wolraich — Sun, 04 Aug 2013 16:31:25 +0000

In reply to Olga Khazan @ The Atlantic on

Interesting. Thanks for this.

What a joke. And his most

Michael Wolraich — Sun, 04 Aug 2013 16:31:05 +0000

In reply to Your post got me thinking

What a joke. And his most hypocritical excuse for moving to Russia to evade French taxes--because his father was a communist.

Olga Khazan @ The Atlantic on

artappraiser — Fri, 02 Aug 2013 20:01:19 +0000

In reply to Russia Offers Asylum to Russian Dissidents

Olga Khazan @ The Atlantic on Russia, whataboutism and tu quoque.

Your post got me thinking

artappraiser — Fri, 02 Aug 2013 19:54:39 +0000

In reply to Russia Offers Asylum to Russian Dissidents

Your post got me thinking about that other celebrity expat "refugee" in Russia, I looked him up and it's interesting what he's been allowed to be up to without much interference:

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/486977/20130705/gerard-depardieu-georg...

Russia, the new libertarian (including the holy grail, low taxes!) state, just as long as you don't cause Putin too much trouble?

It was bound to be funny in

ocean-kat — Fri, 02 Aug 2013 19:23:57 +0000

In reply to It is kind of funny that

It was bound to be funny in some way. Its not like there were any good options. I spent two years in Japan. That would be a nice place to live. Modern, technologically advanced, the hierarchical culture is off putting but there are sufficient legal safe guards to protect individual freedom. But he couldn't get asylum there. Germany, England no hope for him there. France is out since he didn't rape a 13 year old girl.

In the end where is he going to go? Russia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Cuba. He's really left with no choice but prison in the US or looking like a hypocrite.