Portrait of Edward Snowden. Photograph by Thierry Ehrmann
It was a danger as soon as Edward Snowden stepped foot on Russian soil: becoming trapped in the clutches of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is now enjoying a rare position of moral high ground over both the whistleblower and the US forces seeking to capture him. Now, looking woefully in over his head in his airport prison, Snowden’s attempts at both upholding moral integrity and avoiding US jail time seem to have become two mutually exclusive paths.
Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist and the broadcaster of Snowden’s NSA revelations in recent weeks, has confirmed that the ex-spy aims to continue to have a voice in the information-sourcing debate. Greenwald explained that Snowden’s leaks are not over yet, and that the former NSA contractor seeks to travel to South America, further contributing to the topic from there.
However, with America’s scorned secret services striving to get their hands on their perceived traitor, Snowden is now more or less entirely at the mercy of the Russian authorities. Putin and Co have been keeping him in airport limbo for two weeks, reveling in holding a trump card over their Western counterparts.
Snowden himself has little power over his situation, and he knows it. Despite being granted asylum in various countries, he remains paralyzed without Russia following suit. With his US passport revoked, Snowden’s only chances of even leaving the airport rely on Putin’s government granting him asylum and a valid travel visa – something which Russia is clearly in no hurry to do. The Kremlin has yet to acknowledge the ex-NSA contractor’s request for asylum there, and the threat that they might extradite him at any moment must play on Snowden’s mind as he stews helplessly in an airport transit area.
School Kid
The former NSA contractor, who remarkably managed to gain access to deep National Security Agency secrets while working at a facility in Hawaii, is now starting to look trapped and overcome by his situation. As he delivered his speech to the press conference in the Russian capital, human rights activist Tanya Lokshina commented that he resembled “a school kid”: are the pressures of survival getting the best of Edward Snowden?
During the Friday 12 July press conference held at Snowden’s enforced dwelling, Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow, the whistleblower put his image as a moral crusader under considerable doubt. Snowden listed Russia alongside Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador (nations which have granted him asylum) as “being the first to stand against human rights violations carried out by the powerful rather than the powerless.”
His unfounded flattery of the Russian regime reveals a powerlessness to carry through his aims of both exposing illegal governmental activities and remaining, as far as possible, a free man. His pursuit of justice for American citizens has led him to get trapped in a country renowned for corruption, even praising the Putin regime with tenuous pleasantries about its democratic decency.
Illiberal Regime
Although he may not have had much choice, as soon as Snowden uttered “Russia” in the same breath as “stand against human rights violations,” his credibility as a figure of virtue plummeted. His denouncing of US secret services’ invasions of privacy is simply not compatible with complementing the nation whose control of corruption ranks 133 out of 176 nations, according to Transparency International’s listings. This may put into perspective his attacks on undemocratic behavior in the US, which despite its question marks at least ranks 19.
Far from enjoying human rights, those in Russia who stand against the country’s leader are quickly met with the repressive foot of an illiberal regime. Certainly, were things the other way around and Snowden were divulging Russian secrets he would be facing much worse than a long prison sentence. Russian whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky, for example, has become a symbol of the brutality in the East European power after he was allowed to suffer an agonizing death in a cold cell, having been denied medical care and having apparently been tortured.
Snowden’s questionable comment reveals that his situation is more desperate and precarious than he would like to suggest. Despite having acted decisively in exposing national security secrets, revealing his identity and then securing asylum in various nations, the former NSA employee’s destiny is now out of his hands – and to avoid getting tossed back to revenge-hungry US officials he has been reduced to adulating a world-renowned figure of corruption.
As much as it may bring pleasure to the US authorities to see that Snowden has been forced to place question marks over his own integrity, their joy will be short-lived. By snatching at Snowden, threatening damaged relations with those who supported him, even having the Bolivian presidential plane grounded in case the whistleblower was onboard, US officials have played right into the hands of Putin.
While lording his power over both the USA and its rogue escapee, Putin feigns impotence and basks in the international attention on his purportedly moral stance. Both Washington and Snowden are paying the price for relying on Russia, losing face and receiving no commitments of loyalty in return. As far as Snowden is concerned, he is evidently eager to leave Mother Russia behind him as soon as possible. As for the US government, it makes one think that perhaps Obama should have stuck to his promise not to start “scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker,” since the panicky actions of the government have only delivered more power into Putin’s hands.
