Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
I questioned the Russian president live on TV to get his answer on the record, not to whitewash him
On Thursday, I questioned Russia's involvement in mass surveillance on live television. I asked Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, a question that cannot credibly be answered in the negative by any leader who runs a modern, intrusive surveillance program: "Does [your country] intercept, analyse or store millions of individuals' communications?"
I went on to challenge whether, even if such a mass surveillance program were effective and technically legal, it could ever be morally justified.
In his response, Putin denied the first part of the question and dodged on the latter. There are serious inconsistencies in his denial and we'll get to them soon but it was not the president's suspiciously narrow answer that was criticised by many pundits. It was that I had chosen to ask a question at all.
I was surprised that people who witnessed me risk my life to expose the surveillance practices of my own country could not believe that I might also criticise the surveillance policies of Russia, a country to which I have sworn no allegiance, without ulterior motive. I regret that my question could be misinterpreted, and that it enabled many to ignore the substance of the question and Putin's evasive response in order to speculate, wildly and incorrectly, about my motives for asking it.
The investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov, perhaps the single most prominent critic of Russia's surveillance apparatus (and someone who has repeatedly criticised me in the past year), described my question as "extremely important for Russia". According to the Daily Beast, Soldatov said it could lift a de facto ban on public conversations about state eavesdropping.
How long until Snowden is tossed out of Russia?
Snowden is a Patsy. There is a gulag waiting for him when he is no longer useful.
How long until Snowden is tossed out of Russia?
Considering his asylum is up in a few short months it might not be long.
Sent from my iPhone using USMessageBoard.com
Now Russia says it will continue to extend asylum protections to Snowden and won't send him back home.
That word came Friday from Alexy Pushkov, a legislator who is head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Duma, Russia's lower house. He spoke about Snowden at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
How long until Snowden is tossed out of Russia?
Considering his asylum is up in a few short months it might not be long.
Sent from my iPhone using USMessageBoard.com
And Russia has a huge interest in returning Snowden to the US because ..... Why is that again?
Considering his asylum is up in a few short months it might not be long.
Sent from my iPhone using USMessageBoard.com
And Russia has a huge interest in returning Snowden to the US because ..... Why is that again?
Russia has no interest in returning Snowden to the U.S., but, that being said, if Snowden is going to publicly question Putin and then denounce him in op-eds then Putin might decide he has even less interest in keeping him.
Snowden is a Patsy. There is a gulag waiting for him when he is no longer useful.
What Russian laws did he break? Russia has no interest at all, in persecuting Americans that the United States government has singled out. If you think there's a gulag because President Putin wants to show how loyal he is to obama, you need to educate yourself.
And Russia has a huge interest in returning Snowden to the US because ..... Why is that again?
Russia has no interest in returning Snowden to the U.S., but, that being said, if Snowden is going to publicly question Putin and then denounce him in op-eds then Putin might decide he has even less interest in keeping him.
Oh please. Snowden didn't denounce Putin. Can't you recognize a set up when you see one? The questions were to give President Putin a forum so he could say that Russia doesn't spy like the US does.
Russia has no interest in returning Snowden to the U.S., but, that being said, if Snowden is going to publicly question Putin and then denounce him in op-eds then Putin might decide he has even less interest in keeping him.
Oh please. Snowden didn't denounce Putin. Can't you recognize a set up when you see one? The questions were to give President Putin a forum so he could say that Russia doesn't spy like the US does.
Did you even read Snowden's op-ed?
Oh please. Snowden didn't denounce Putin. Can't you recognize a set up when you see one? The questions were to give President Putin a forum so he could say that Russia doesn't spy like the US does.
Did you even read Snowden's op-ed?
Are you saying Russia has a free press and we don't? Yes. I agree with that. I read Snowden's op ed and find that it was a vehicle to again impress upon the evil obama regime's spying by appearing even handed with Russia.
Did you even read Snowden's op-ed?
Are you saying Russia has a free press and we don't? Yes. I agree with that. I read Snowden's op ed and find that it was a vehicle to again impress upon the evil obama regime's spying by appearing even handed with Russia.
And you can't see where Snowden denounced Putin by essentially claiming that he lied in his answer to Snowden's question?
Are you saying Russia has a free press and we don't? Yes. I agree with that. I read Snowden's op ed and find that it was a vehicle to again impress upon the evil obama regime's spying by appearing even handed with Russia.
And you can't see where Snowden denounced Putin by essentially claiming that he lied in his answer to Snowden's question?
No. I see a carefully crafted piece that offers mild comments regarding Putin, to justify serious and well deserved attacks against obama. You are comparing a relatively free country as Russia to the far more despotic United States with Russia saying "See we allow criticism of our president!"
There was recently an anti Putin demonstration in Moscow because every government has dissenters. There was no Russian law maker that showed up and called the dissenters domestic terrorists. Snowden is allowed to criticize Putin, but he couldn't here. Everything seems to be designed to put the US in as bad a position as possible. Not that the US doesn't deserve it.
