He has the image of a dictator (rightly so) and doesn't need to hide it. He connects the image western people have of him to their own domestic actors. If he just condemned it, he would be the hypocrite. So he opted to redirect animosity towards him to others.
Pointing out mass surveillance isn't an attack on the integrity of the US, it is an attack on the practice you would expect from Putin.
Pointing out mass surveillance isn't an attack on the integrity of the US, it is an attack on the practice you would expect from Putin.