Edward Snowden’s Cowardice on Russian TV [View all]

[JI7]

As tens of thousands of Russian troops threatened Ukraine, Snowden on Thursday played a set piece in Vladimir Putin’s latest act of propaganda, appearing on a televised question-and-answer session with the Russian president. Snowden began with a denunciation of American data collection practices and then asked Putin a timid question about Russia’s policy on Internet surveillance. Putin responded, misleadingly, that Russia has laws restraining state security agents and judicial and political oversight of surveillance operations. The Russian president said he hopes — hopes! — Russia never conducts intrusive data collection.

Lest you wonder whether the National Security Agency leaker simply took the best opportunity he had to ask an honest question, consider the circumstances: Heavy state control over the airwaves in Russia, especially programs on which Putin appears, surely makes these sorts of things more staged than a professional wrestling match. Besides, if Snowden really wanted to press Putin, he would have listed the variety of human rights abuses and abridgments of free speech in which the Russian state is implicated — not to mention the suspicious murders of Russian journalists — rather than devoting his preamble to U.S. policy.

UPDATE, April 18, 11:00 a.m.: Snowden unrepentantly defended himself in a commentary the Guardian published on Friday. He claims he was trying to force Putin on the record about Russian state surveillance, and that journalists can now follow-up on his answer. This reasoning demonstrates that Snowden is either tragically, improbably naive about the role he played on Russian state television, or that he is extremely disingenuous. The bottom line is that Snowden helped Putin manipulate his Russian audience, most of whom will never see the sort of follow-up accountability journalism on Putin’s answer that one would expect in a liberal democracy. He did not ask Putin a tough question. His explanation — that he first needed to establish Putin’s position before criticizing it — does not make sense, given that there is already plenty of information available on the Russian government’s surveillance capabilities and on the wide-ranging abuse of its people’s various rights. Subsequently calling Russia’s ruler to account in a Western newspaper does not change any of that.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2014/04/17/edward-snowdens-cowardice-on-russian-tv/