Posted on 07/01/2013 9:51:21 AM PDT by cunning_fish
MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin made starkly clear on Monday that Edward Snowden was not welcome in Russia, and voiced solidarity with the United States over the fugitive former U.S. spy agency contactor.
However, speaking eight days after Snowden arrived at a Moscow airport where he is believed to remain, Putin repeated that Russia had no intention of handing the American over to the United States, which wants him on espionage charges.
For the second time in a week, he said Russian intelligence agencies were not working with Snowden and urged him to leave as soon as possible. "If he wants to go away somewhere and someone will accept him there, by all means," Putin said.
"If he wants to stay here, there is one condition: He must stop his work aimed at harming our American partners, as strange as that sounds coming from my lips," Putin told reporters after a gas exporters' conference in Moscow.
When asked about speculation that Snowden might leave with one of the delegations to the conference, whose guests included the presidents of Venezuela and Bolivia, Putin said did not know of any such plans.
Some Russians say Putin should grant Snowden asylum, but his remarks suggested the former Soviet KGB officer has little sympathy with the actions of the 30-year-old American who leaked details of secret U.S. government surveillance programs.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Snowball may have information on Russian spying in his bag of tricks. So Putin may not want that to be handed to the public.
Says Putin tongue in cheek.
If the POTUS tells you not to do something then you shouldn’t. If Vladimir Putin tells you to not do something, its time to cut the sh**.
LOL.
Wouldn’t doubt that Russia is doing the same thing NSA is doing.
Even Putin has a sense or irony.
Think about it from Putin's perspective.
Snowden has information I want, and information I would like to keep to myself for my own benefit.
He's hiding in my country and needs my help.
At the same time I need the US to better cooperate with me.
So I tell Snowden to stop leaking US info (after I have it all already), implictly threatening him with extradition.
Now Snowden owes me a favor and the US owes me a favor, and I get to keep the bargaining chip.
Snowden - the rookie Communist spy - gets played by Putin, the experienced Communist spymaster.
Clever Russians. Snowden arrives from Hong Kong without a visa. The Russians allow him to stay in the transit area beyond the usual 24 hours. His U.S. passport has been revoked so he can't board a plane to travel to any other country. At this point he has only two choices: ask the U.S. to validate his passport for one way travel to the U.S. only and get on a plane to New York and be arrested upon arrival or approach Russian immigration and ask for asylum. Now the Russians have him. Not how he planned to spend the rest of his life. Previous NSA defectors have not lived happier thereafter. What a wasted life.
Every country in the world has spied on every other country in the world since the beginning of time.
We only have Putin’s word that Snowden is in a Russian airport. The guy could be lounging on a beach sipping fruity drinks with cute little umbrellas for all we know. I’m torn between believing he’s a hero to the American citizen or one of hussein’s minions planted to remove the half dozen other scandals off the front page.
I was just thinking that Putin doesn’t want to lose a good source of info. The Russians probably infiltrated and they could be exposed if Snowden releases everything.
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