NSA leaker Snowden has fans in Russia
Edward Snowden, who is now awaiting his onward light to Havana, Cuba from Moscow, has become somewhat of a media celebrity in Russia. And the Russian government is more than willing to use him to embarrass the USA.
But homegrown whistleblowers don’t get such celebrity treatment. From Der Spiegel:
Moscow’s enthusiasm for dissidents and whistleblowers is, however, strictly reserved for critics attacking Western governments and their agencies. Journalist and environmentalist Grigory Pasko, who uncovered the fact that Russia’s Pacific Fleet was dumping nuclear waste into the ocean, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2001 on charges of treason and espionage.
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As a result, the number of whistleblowers in the country is limited. In 2011, narcotics officer Alexey Dymovsky was sent to prison for 42 days after revealing corruption within the Russian police force via YouTube. In early 2011, court clerk Natalia Vasilyeva revealed that the judge in the second trial against oligarch and Putin-critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky had not written the verdict himself, but had merely followed orders from above.
This is what burns me about Snowden (and pal Glenn Greenwald). They squawk about how the NSA is violating the civil rights of Americans, and how reprehensible it is for the USA to spy on other countries. But where has Snowden fled to? Countries that abuse their citizens’ civil rights far worse than America does.
Snowden famously said he was afraid the USA would murder him for revealing NSA secrets. Yeah, well, if he were Chinese, he’d have already “disappeared.”
More: Snowden Arrival Gives Russia Opportunity in Strained Relations With US