Snowden’s Flight Sets Back Obama’s China, Russia Outreach
By Terry Atlas and Nicole Gaouette - Jun 24, 2013
President Barack Obama found that his personal efforts to shore up relations with the leaders of China and Russia failed to pay off as fugitive Edward Snowden traveled to Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport from Hong Kong en route to a permanent refuge, perhaps in Ecuador.
Obama met just this month with Chinese President Xi Jinping in California and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Group of Eight Summit. The flight by Snowden, a self-described whistle-blower evading U.S. Espionage Act charges, marks a reversal for that diplomacy. U.S. lawmakers yesterday criticized China and particularly Russia, warning of consequences for failing to hold Snowden for extradition.
“The efforts by the Obama administration in Palm Springs, California, with the Chinese, and then in Northern Ireland with the Russians to find areas of common agreement have been dealt a pretty big setback,” said Bruce Riedel, a 30-year veteran of the CIA and director of the Intelligence Project at the Brookings Institution, a Washington policy-research group.
Secretary of State John Kerry today called on Russia to turn Snowden over to U.S. authorities, saying that the U.S. has transferred to Russia seven prisoners “that they wanted” in the past few years. He also criticized China, saying “it would be very disappointing” if Snowden had been “willfully allowed to board an airplane” in Hong Kong.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-23/global-manhunt-for-snowden-roils-u-s-diplomatic-relations.html
