

Snowden asks Putin on live television if Russia spies on its citizens - selmnoo
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/04/17/snowden-putin-question-surveillence/7815957/

======
mpyne
And Putin says no, of course not, that would be strictly illegal and would be
unsupported by our society.

Which is, of course, B.S., at least insofar as it's possible to trust
government in general with this kind of thing. Remember just a year ago when
people were saying we couldn't compare what NSA does to what FSB does, because
they're _Russia_ and obviously would spy on their own people?

But the question wouldn't have come up (it appeared on live TV but was pre-
recorded) if the answer Putin was going to give wasn't already teed up....
what is Snowden trying to play here with the softball? Surely he can't be
meaning to be the fiddle for Putin to play (a similar Reuters article claims
Snowden is trying to press on surveillance in other countries, but that makes
zero sense whatsoever, pushing too hard on that could only get his asylum
revoked...).

~~~
gatehouse
Now that Putin has clearly said "no", if evidence comes out that they have
dragnet surveillance like the NSA, then he is shown to be lying.

This is like how they were able to prove that the NSA was lying in its
responses, over and over again after each leak. So when mandarins attempt to
say we're having a "great debate" or whatever it is transparent that they are
fucking with you.

~~~
loceng
And he won't give a shit because he's already getting away with other things.
We have to start treating the world as a global community. What if Russia was
doing this to Canada? Would other countries just stand by to see how badly it
escalates or immediately jump in as peace keepers?

Edit: I should clarify and that it isn't "Russia" doing it to anyone, it is
Putin and the people in control there.

~~~
XorNot
If you mean the Ukraine thing, then the principle reason we're not getting
involved is because World War III would be bad for everybody.

Make no mistake: any conflict between NATO and Russia would end in Russian
defeat, but not before you saw China get involved (against Russia, to keep the
Japanese off the mainland) and the Middle East explode as a bunch of nations
took the tying up of the usual powers as an opportunity to grab some land and
settle old scores.

Wave goodbye to the American economy, Chinese economy (but ironically possibly
not the European one) - assuming of course, that everyone stays sane and no
one thinks to try and use their nuclear arsenal offensively to retake lost
ground.

~~~
loceng
Economies don't just disappear, they change - they maybe don't grow as
quickly, maybe they contract a bit (some areas would be worse off than others
if they don't have local sustainable practices). War shifts activity towards
military-related creation which I don't agree with, though letting that little
irritation grow into a rash is the wrong approach - because that rash gains
"power" or rather the ability to control more and be more free than could be
if you were applying an ointment to it. The fear that has been injected to
people relating to the "economy is going to collapse" only has power because
capitalism currently causes a false state of scarcity. We have the resources
to feed and shelter everyone, giving them the time to live life, to learn,
etc.. Once we solve this false scarcity then that fear will be alleviated and
people who have control issues and who are unkind can be limited by societies
of how much influence and control of resources they have.

------
icantthinkofone
The US also has a law about stalking a particular person and the US, too, must
get a court order. So it's even.

"We don't have as much money as they have in the States and we don't have
these technical devices that they have in the States," Putin said.

"Ah but when we do....!"

------
jmsdnns
I wonder what, if any, effect this will have on those that feel Snowden is a
Russian Spy.

~~~
at-fates-hands
Well, it is pretty telling Putin says, "Mr. Snowden, you are a former agent, a
spy, I used to be working for an intelligence service, we are going to talk
one professional language."

Putin is such a master chess player, you always have to dig a LOT deeper every
time he says something. A lot of people could say he said it because he thinks
/ knows Snowden is a spy (the whole Russian spy conspiracy angle:
[http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/2014/01/snowden-was-
russia...](http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/2014/01/snowden-was-russian-
spy.html) ), or could just be playing a game with semantics where he's just
trying to stoke the ire of the US government. Either way, it's going to
reinforce whatever opinion you had of him prior to this.

~~~
smsm42
You don't need to dig deeper, it's completely transparent. Everything Putin
says is meant for internal consumption in Russia, where nobody (within 99%
margin, Putin doesn't care about a minuscule bunch of geeks who only talk to
people like them) knows how NSA or CIA works and can not distinguish between
CIA operative and NSA technical contractor. So for them Snowden is a CIA spy,
and the fact that CIA spy has defected to Russian side is a welcome reference
to the olden times, where the cases of such defectors were celebrates and
triumphantly displayed as a proof of the superiority of everything Soviet.
There's nothing new and deep here - it is a simple lie that is designed to
deceive the uninformed and keep them this way so that they would keep
supporting Putin who protects them from CIA atrocities. Any authoritarian thug
with quarter a brain does that.

