Oh, and We Know Putin Would Never Lie to Snowden!
Snowden, 30, wearing a jacket and open-collar shirt and speaking before a dark background, asked Putin: “Does Russia intercept, store or analyse, in any way, the communications of millions of individuals?”
“And do you believe that simply increasing the effectiveness of intelligence or law enforcement investigations can justify placing societies, rather than subjects, under surveillance?” he asked.
He was speaking in English, and Putin had to ask the anchor for help with a translation of the question.
Putin, a spy during a 16-year career with the Soviet KGB, raised a laugh among the studio audience when he said: “You are an ex-agent. I used to have ties to intelligence. So we will speak to each other in the language of professionals.”
Turning to Snowden’s question, Putin said Russia regulates communications as part of criminal investigations, but “on a massive scale, on an uncontrolled scale we certainly do not allow this and I hope we will never allow it.”
Can Snowden really be dumb enough to assume he can take Putin’s answer at face value? Did he really fall for that ham handed, buddy-buddy, ‘We are both ex-agents’ shtick? Or does he just relish trying to make the US look bad that much?
Read more here — not that there’s really anything else important but I wanted to give the link. (Oh wait, there’s a video!)