
Russia extends Snowden residency by three years - graeham
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-28689231
======
johnchristopher
I suppose it's not unrelated to the russian embargo on European, Canadian,
Australian, Norwegian and American food that was announced this morning and
has yet to reach the US online news [0]. English translation [1].

[0] haven't seen anything yet on nytimes or wp.

[1]
[http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http...](http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lemonde.fr%2Feurope%2Farticle%2F2014%2F08%2F07%2Fla-
russie-decrete-un-embargo-total-sur-les-produits-alimentaires-europeens-et-
americains_4468074_3214.html&sandbox=1)

~~~
Shivetya
What should we expect when our own President is trash talking Russia?
[http://news.yahoo.com/obama-russia-doesnt-anything-west-
must...](http://news.yahoo.com/obama-russia-doesnt-anything-west-must-firm-
china-201843411.html)

Really, this guy is not doing well on the world stage, he almost seems to act
like a petulant child at times with his comments.

Why shouldn't Russia do this, it causes embarrassment to a country who for the
last few years has show contempt for anything Russia does. Its like the pot
calling the kettle black.

The world is a flipping mess and two countries who could work together to fix
it are having the equivalent of a playground spat.

~~~
Ilverin
If there are Russian soldiers in Ukraine supporting rebels, the actions of
Russia are without question much worse than any of the actions taken by the
US.

~~~
trhway
>If there are Russian soldiers in Ukraine

there aren't soldiers yet. Special agents, mercenaries and volunteers - yes.
Including 200+ Serbs volunteers/mercenaries (Russians helped Serbs back in
similar way in similar war in 199x)

>the actions of Russia are without question much worse than any of the actions
taken by the US.

not really. Both countries regularly engage in proxy wars. US used real
soldiers btw in Afganistan and Iraq.

------
sidcool
This had to happen. With all the sanctions that the US and EU is slapping on
Russia they had to do this. Independent of of the motives, I think this is
good for Snowden. The enemy of enemy is a friend.

------
lemming
Good timing for Snowden - given that Russia is keen to retaliate for the
sanctions right now they're probably pleased to piss the US off with this.

------
sebkomianos
Why are we discussing Snowden's ability to travel? I mean, does he need to
travel? Is that essential to him continuing what he is doing?

~~~
hack_edu
Freedom to travel is quite literally a declared Human Right. No need to
question it's or why's.

~~~
trose
While I support his right to travel I think he would be foolish to exercise
that right at the moment. If I'm traveling abroad and find myself on a flight
with him I will politely exit the aircraft.

------
junto
I lol'ed at this one:

    
    
       "Accordingly, Edward Snowden was given a three-year
       residence permit," which will allow him to move about
       freely and travel abroad, Mr Kucherena said.
    

He can "travel abroad". Where exactly?

The Crimea is probably the safest place he could travel to at present!

~~~
DanBC
> He can "travel abroad".

Some non-Russians who visit Russia need an exit visa.
[http://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/exit-
visa.asp](http://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/exit-visa.asp)

\------ My original post was getting heavily downvoted, even after the first
edit. Here it is, with the first edit. I've ROT13d it to stop people down-
voting the (now corrected) mistake.

Fbzr angvbaf erdhver gurve pvgvmraf gb trg crezvffvba gb yrnir gur pbhagel.
Ehffvn vf bar bs gurfr pbhagevrf.

RQVG: V jbeqrq guvf ernyyl onqyl. Ehffvn hfrq gb erdhver vgf pvgvmraf gb trg
rkvg ivfnf. Ohg Ehffvn qbrf fgvyy erdhver aba-pvgvmraf gb unir rkvg ivfnf.
uggc://jjj.vairfgbcrqvn.pbz/grezf/r/rkvg-ivfn.nfc

~~~
jacquesm
It _used_ to be like that for all citizens. But that practice has been
abolished quite a while ago, if you have a valid passport and you're not on a
list of 'persons of interest' you can leave the country like everywhere else.

But you _are_ right in Snowdens case, since foreigners resident in Russia need
an 'exit visum' to be allowed to do trips abroad, and clearly Snowden is one
of those.

~~~
huhtenberg
Snowden is not a citizen.

~~~
jacquesm
I never claimed he was a citizen, but he _is_ a resident and that's the bit
that matters here. And that's exactly the situation that part of the law
applies to (and it is one of the reasons I never wanted to live in Russia, I
don't want to have to ask permission to leave a country).

So Snowden needs permission to be allowed to leave.

~~~
huhtenberg
DanBC said "citizen", not you.

~~~
DanBC
And I have since edited to correct my mistake.

------
huhtenberg
The more I look at this, the more I am becoming convinced that Ukraine was a
retaliation for Snowden getting a shelter in Russia.

If you rewind back, the US reaction to Snowden staying in Russia was
remarkably _disproportionately_ mild. For an incident that made an
unprecedented damage to the US image, it was very un-US like to just let it
go. So tearing Ukraine away from Russia and pissing all over Russian political
image fits right in. These two events just cannot not be connected.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
Stop with the conspiracy talk. Euromaidan was not orchestrated by the US.
Ukraine, ever since its independence, has been divided by pro-Western and pro-
Russian fantions. It is hardly surprising that protests in the West sprung up
when Yanukovych delayed signing the Association Agreement.

Even if we forget about the US/Europe thing, remember that Yanukovych was
previously ousted from power in another revolution 10 years before: the Orange
Revolution.

~~~
MisterWebz
It might not have been orchestrated but it was heavily funded by the US. I
seem to remember watching a video where a Ukrainian girl tries to emotionally
explain why people should support Maidan. The video had almost 10 million
views. I did some researching and it turns out the video was funded by a US
senator. Then there's Pierre Omidyar funding opposition groups through USAID
and who knows what kind of other funding Maidan has received.

I don't think it's a conspiracy that US successfully managed to get Ukraine
out of Russia's hands. A good thing, some might say.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
Oh sure, the US tends to support groups that go with its agenda. It helps pro-
democracy (and pro-capitalist, pro-free trade etc.) groups. I suppose they
could've helped them, I have no idea how that'd work in practice though.

However, I think it's nonsense to suggest it's some massive US/EU plot to get
revenge on Russia. It was spontaneous and reacting to something completely
unrelated to Snowden or Syria.

------
Grue3
Great, now he has more time to sit on his ass and say nothing about the
terribly oppressive Internet laws that Russian government enacts over its
citizens. So brave.

~~~
sekasi
Why do you expect him to be some sort of super hero that continuously risks
his own life to expose information to the general public when you do nothing
at all but whine on a forum?

Got a bit of entitlement there do we?

~~~
Grue3
I'm just expecting him to not be a huge hypocrite as he was when he went on
public record of praising Russia's commitment to human rights. [1] Apparently
that only includes _his_ rights, not us, regular people of Russia. I'm just
doing my part of spreading awareness about his unforgivable hypocrisy.

[1] [http://www.businessinsider.com/edward-snowden-asylum-
stateme...](http://www.businessinsider.com/edward-snowden-asylum-statement-
human-rights-groups-un-venezuela-russia-moscow-airport-2013-7)

~~~
jarek
> I'm just doing my part of spreading awareness about his unforgivable
> hypocrisy.

He did his part to spread awareness about U.S. government's unforgivable
hypocrisy so I suppose that just about cancels out in terms of impact on the
world, eh?

~~~
Grue3
That's the problem, nobody hears our plight and my voice is suppressed even on
this very forum, while Snowden has all the media in the world to transmit his
message. I don't. My message won't be heard because it doesn't concern the
first world people. It's not a first world problem, so media doesn't give a
shit about it, and Snowden doesn't give a shit about it either.

~~~
watwut
Except you are not trying to spread the message about oppressive internet laws
in Russia. Nor are you informing and complaining about Russian freedom.
Instead, you are complaining about Snowden not instantly becoming Russia
freedom activist and general expert on Russia freedom.

Because if he does not get himself involved in freedom of all countries in the
world, then his own message about freedom in country he is actually citizen of
does not count. Because he should voluntary spend the rest of his life in
small box to prove his is not hypocritical, right?

~~~
Grue3
This is a post about Snowden, so my comments are also about Snowden. Staying
on topic is a good thing, right? I made plenty of comments about the
censorship in Russia in other threads.

>Instead, you are complaining about Snowden not instantly becoming Russia
freedom activist and general expert on Russia freedom.

Oh, I could compare him to actual Russian freedom activists who didn't run
away from their country when things got tough, and went to prison for their
beliefs. But that comparison would be unfavorable to Snowden. Did anyone in
the world care when Russian whistleblower Alexei Navalny got arrested? Was it
on Hacker News front page? Oh, and Snowden was around here when that happened.
He most certainly knew it happened (it _was_ big news here in Russia). He
didn't even say a word about his fellow whistleblower. This is the shit that
drives me up a wall.

~~~
grey-area
Are you writing from prison in Russia? If not why haven't you supported Alexei
Navalny and criticised Putin until you were arrested and thrown in prison for
it? If you consider the reasons why _you_ have not protested enough to be
imprisoned in Russia, Snowden's reasons for not speaking out from his
vulnerable position are probably very similar.

Also, for the record, he has openly criticised censorship in Russia -

 _I’ve been totally open about the fact that I disapprove of the majority of
the recent laws in Russia on internet censorship and surveillance. I think
it’s entirely inappropriate for any government in any country to insert itself
into the regulation of a free press._

[http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/18/-sp-edward-
snow...](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/18/-sp-edward-snowden-nsa-
whistleblower-interview-transcript)

