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Snowden Granted 3 More Years of Russian Residency 266

SiggyRadiation writes Edward Snowden is allowed to stay in Russia for three more years. According to the NYPost:"His lawyer, Analtoly Kucherena, was quoted by Russian news agencies on Thursday as saying Snowden now has been granted residency for three more years, but that he had not been granted political asylum. That status, which would allow him to stay in Russia permanently, must be decided by a separate procedure, Kucherena said, but didn't say whether Snowden is seeking it." The question that remains, of course, is did the Russians use this as leverage over him to get to more information or influence him? Or is the positive PR in itself enough for the Russians in the current climate of tensions and economic sanctions relating to the Ukraine crisis?"
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Snowden Granted 3 More Years of Russian Residency

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  • First post (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    He should be able to live wherever he wants!

  • by mbone ( 558574 ) on Thursday August 07, 2014 @07:50AM (#47621773)

    Anyone who thinks that Russia would deport Edward Snowden does not know much about the long history of Russian spycraft.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      The Russians are never letting him go - at least not for free. They'll have to get something to give him up. Snowden probably couldn't leave Russia even if he wanted to.

      But the Russians will treat him well - to make an example of him: "Leak classified US data and the Russians will take care of you."

      At least until the US offers Russia something substantial for him - then the Russians will ship him back.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Anyone who seriously uses the word 'spycraft' has read too many Tom Clancy novels. HAND.

  • by Sonny Yatsen ( 603655 ) * on Thursday August 07, 2014 @07:56AM (#47621815) Journal

    Russia isn't using this to leverage information or to influence Snowden. Russia is using this to stick it to the US. And if, every once in a while, they can trot him out like a useful puppet (like they did during Putin's televised Q&A), then all the better

    • Yep.

      And to answer the summary; the positive PR value is enough.

      Since you already know this is the kind of guy that will fall on his sword, bullying him would get you little of value, while throwing away the 'useful puppet' advantage.

      If we don't like the situation, nothing is stopping Obama from offering him a deal.

    • NSA's grab of data is one debate that has nothing to do with Snowden. That grabbing is still there and will continue to bet there. It was going on before Snowden ever showed up.

      More upsetting to me than grabbing big data is the government's failure to learn from Manning regarding how many worker ants have access to the big data.

      Snowden (and Manning) walked in; got the stuff; and walked out.

      THAT's the larger problem which continues today.

      Both Snowden and Manning are so last year. Snowden's value now is for R

      • The biggest problem is actually not people having access to sensitive information, but that it is not morally wrong to spread it. As a government, you have two choices.

        Either you're morally integer, then your people will willingly support you and will do whatever they can to keep harm from you, because they believe in you and the country you represent. They will willingly fight for you and will, if need be, die for you, or rather, what you represent.

        Or you can be morally corrupt and force, coerce and bribe

    • by Kjella ( 173770 )

      I'm not so sure about the "influence Snowden" part. By giving him a temporary stay when he's got very few other places to go they're giving him a lot of incentive to be that useful puppet, as opposed to a permanent stay. If they did that, he might withdraw from the public spotlight or start pointing out it's the pot calling the kettle black. No doubt the Russians have similar operations of their own.

      • You don't go around Russia calling attention to the government's abuses, citizen or not. You manage to embarrass Putin in the media and you are in *serious* trouble. You do remember the "girls band" members that tried to desecrate the church right? Russia is not kind to it's detractors.

    • For years the US portrayed Russia/USSR as an evil empire.
      Russia would respond with "but the US is no better".

      Snowden is the poster child proving Russia right all along.
      Where ever he goes, Snowden will always do that.

      • by Xest ( 935314 )

        Nothing's proving Russia right when there's a wall of evil doings proving the counter. Snowden is one of the few things they can genuinely cling on to.

        For all of the US' wrongs there's nothing changing the fact that Russia is an evil empire, well, that's a lie, it's not an empire any more thank god, it just wants to be, but it's still evil.

        Let's just look at a few of the things they've done this year alone, let's start near the beginning of the year where the scene is that there is a popular uprising agains

  • Why That Question? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Bob9113 ( 14996 ) on Thursday August 07, 2014 @08:11AM (#47621905) Homepage

    The question that remains, of course, is did the Russians use this as leverage over him to get to more information or influence him?

    Why is that a question? Has there been any indication that anything like that has happened? No? Well then why does that question come up for you? I believe it is because you know that if you said what you are implying outright, the unanimous response would be, "Citation Needed!"

    Don't propagate bullshit suggestive questions [wikipedia.org] that try to make a point you don't have the balls (or the evidence) to present in a forthright manner. Leave that kind of rhetorical crap to the downward spiral that is major media news. Here, you will be held to a higher standard.

  • Anal what? (Score:3, Informative)

    by cloud.pt ( 3412475 ) on Thursday August 07, 2014 @08:17AM (#47621951)

    Nice typo, Anatoly Kucherena will be pleased :D.

    Apparently the original source, among other sites, added the extra L, so poster has an excuse :D

  • by Antique Geekmeister ( 740220 ) on Thursday August 07, 2014 @08:33AM (#47622049)

    There are many _questions_ that remain. How much additional information does Snowden have squirreled away in dead drops, that will be revealed if he is killed or imprisoned? How much information can Russian personnel gather about subtle policies of NSA, by indirect deduction of what Snowden says to press or to his handlers? What has, or can, the NSA do to protect its revealed policies and assets? What inspiration do minor details about NSA monitoring provide for Russian surveillance?

    The concept that there is "the only remaining question", and posing the question to cast the Russians as aggressive victims, is a straw man. It's a side issue distracting debate from much more important issues.

    • I'll give you my answers to your questions. These answers are based on little to no real data, mostly just reasoning about how Snowden's flight most likely went down, and a (reasonable, I think) assumption that he's a fairly ordinary guy, not a brilliant and nefarious planner. I also doubt that he extracted much, if any, data prior to his big grab-and-run, because it would have been too risky. So I don't think he had much time to do things between getting the dump and hightailing it.

      How much additional information does Snowden have squirreled away in dead drops, that will be revealed if he is killed or imprisoned?

      None. This would have re

  • Will they use him as part of any deal over ukraine?

    Russia may use him as part of any deal to end the sanctions and / or war over Ukraine

  • Course of action (Score:5, Insightful)

    by blue9steel ( 2758287 ) on Thursday August 07, 2014 @10:21AM (#47622877)
    I haven't seen anything that Snowden has revealed that hurt our national security in any serious way. Sure, plenty of embarrassment for the administration but that's hardly the same thing. Personally, I'm glad that he did what he did since it's started a very real discussion about intelligence service over-reach and lack of sufficient oversight. The right thing to do would be for the president to grant him a pardon on the condition that he come back to the US and turn over any remaining materials. That way we keep the information out of the hands of our rivals and demonstrate that we protect whistleblowers at the same time.

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