Talk About Strange Bedfellows

 

The photo above shows a Russian Snowden supporter outside the airport holding a sign that reads "Resist the new world order."

When Hollywood finally decides to make a film about the National Security Agency (NSA) leaker Edward Snowden's secret life in a Moscow airport, they'll need to be sure to include Russian politicians discussing his fate. From the very first day Snowden's plane landed in Sheremetyevo airport from Hong Kong, both pro- and anti-Putin political figures have agreed on one thing: he shouldn't be turned over to the Americans. Politicians and oppositionists alike have argued that Snowden should be allowed to stay and work in Russia rather than ending up behind bars in his home country.

On Monday, after it emerged that Snowden had made an official application for asylum in Russia, President Putin issued a remarkable statement: "If he wants to stay here, there is one condition: he must stop his activities aimed at inflicting damage to our American partners, no matter how strange it may sound on my lips." (At the same news conference Putin made a point of comparing Snowden with the Soviet-era dissident Andrei Sakharov.)

Russia, of course, isn't the only country that Snowden has turned to for help; altogether he's applied to 19 countries for asylum, according to WikiLeaks. The Kremlin now says that Snowden withdrew his Russian asylum request after hearing about Putin's condition. Some Duma deputies, however, are proposing a compromise: instead of working publicly, they say, Snowden ought to share all of his secret data with the Russian intelligence services. His evidence that Americans spy not only on American citizens, but also on their European allies, would surely be of interest.

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