re: #115 simoom

Here’s the AP/Putin interview as presented by Russia Today. This occurs at ~1:50:

‘Russia’s only choice is to permit Snowden to live here’ - Putin

PUTIN: “I’m going to honestly tell you something I never said before, though I’ve hinted, but I haven’t said it. Snowden first met with our diplomats while in Hong Kong. I was told about it and that he was an intelligence agency employee. ‘What does he want?’ I asked. The answer was that he fought for freedom of information. Fought illegal activities in the US, in violations of international law. I said, ‘tell him if he wants to stay in Russia he needs to stop any work that damages Russia / US relations. We are not an NGO, we have national interests, and we have no intention of damaging Russian / American relations’. And he said, ‘no, I’m a human rights activist and I urge you to join my cause.” And I said, ‘no, we aren’t joining his cause. If he wants to fight let him fight on his own.’ So he just walked out and that’s it.”

Putin then goes on to, just like Snowden, blame the US for Snowden ending up in Russia.

Anyway, Jane Mayer really should have done more research before publishing that claim.