On Moscow Layover, Snowden Finds No Friend in Putin (info squeeze in Moscow and Havana hmm) [View all]

[flamingdem]

My predictions:
- Putin will squeeze info out of Snowdon before granting him exit
- Cuba will not accept his transit through Jose Marti Airport in Havana

** After noting that all flights to Ecuador make stopovers I'm concluding that
he may stop in Caracas or Havana but only if they also get something out of
the deal .. as in more secret information or a payoff of another kind. In both
cases their relationship with the US will take a hit so they'll need incentive


The suspense did not last long: Soon after his flight from Hong Kong landed in Moscow, we were told that National Security Agency whistle-blower Edward Snowden had applied for political asylum in Ecuador.

It was in Hong Kong that Snowden publicly disclosed the existence of Prism, a top-secret U.S. National Security Agency program providing the NSA with access to the servers of top Internet companies like Miscrosoft, Apple, Google and Yahoo! Hong Kong has an extradition treaty with the U.S., where Snowden is sought for revealing classified information. Though the region's parliament left it for the mainland Chinese authorities to decide whether or not to hand Snowden over, his situation was too uncertain to stay on. Hong Kong officials facing pressure both from the U.S. and from Beijing, which is reluctant to take orders from Washington, must have heaved a big sigh of relief as Snowden boarded an Aeroflot flight to Moscow.

It was hardly a random destination: Russia has no extradition treaty with the U.S. Since Snowden had not made his plans known before skipping Hong Kong, some politicians in Moscow believed he might seek asylum here, and welcomed the opportunity to stick it to Uncle Sam. "Some are already saying that granting Snowden political asylum would be an act of cold war," tweeted Alexei Pushkov, head of the Russian parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee. "But if wig-wearing spies are not committing one, granting asylum is not such an act, either."

Pushkov was referring to the recent apprehension of a U.S. diplomat in Moscow as he walked to an alleged rendezvous with a potential Russian asset. The diplomat was apparently wearing a blond wig, and the whole episode was more comical than cloak-and-dagger.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-23/on-moscow-layover-snowden-finds-no-friend-in-putin.html

Putin practicing the squeeeeze technique he'll apply to Snowden