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Meanwhile, today in Russia Vladimir Putin hauled Edward Snowden out of whatever dingy state apartment he’s been living in, for a high profile propaganda show that was utterly laughable.

Snowden, who has been given temporary asylum in Russia, connected via video link and asked Putin: “Does Russia intercept, store or analyze in any way the communications of millions of individuals?”

Putin began his response by telling Snowden that “you are a former agent, a spy. I used to work for an intelligence service [the KGB]. We are going to talk one professional language.”

Then the Russian president, who in recent weeks has claimed he did not send troops into Crimea only to now admit that he did and insists there are no Russian military personnel in eastern Ukraine even though reporters have heard at least one man there introduce himself as a Russian officer, made the case that:

“You have to get court permission to stalk a particular person. We don’t have a mass system of such interception, and according to our law it cannot exist.”