Snowden has left the airport....

[MADem]

67. Who knows? Maybe he is?

He's giving USA an opportunity to do some retaliative extradition of Russian spies from third countries--and we've been doing that quietly since Snowden popped up in Russia....so you never know.

I would laugh like hell if that turned out to be the case--but I think it's a very long shot. If he was, in fact, a double agent, a "loyal traitor," as it were, he's one of the best ones in modern history!

This one already went down: http://english.ruvr.ru/news/2013_07_31/Russia-s-Panin-extradition-from-Dominican-Republic-to-US-is-a-serious-concern-Foreign-Ministry-0761/

The extradition of Russian Alexander Panin from the Dominican Republic to the US arouses serious concern in Moscow, as such cases become an "unacceptable vicious trend" on the part of the American authorities, Deputy Director of the Information and Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia Maria Zakharovasays in a commentary published on the Department’s website on Wednesday.
"We have, of course, a serious concern about the fact that at issue is the arrest of a Russian citizen on a warrant from the US in a third country. We find this practice that is already turning into a vicious trend totally unacceptable and inadmissible," the document says.
According to Zakharova, Moscow has repeatedly pointed out to the American side that in case of complaints against Russian citizens, the US should send inquiries to relevant law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation on the basis of the bilateral Treaty on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters of 1999, but it is still not a usual practice.

They're furious about this 'un: http://english.ruvr.ru/news/2013_07_31/Moscow-will-harshly-react-to-possible-extradition-of-Dmitry-Ustinov-to-US-Dolgov-6195/

The lawyer of the Russian military equipment exporter, Dmitry Ustinov, has lodged an appeal with a regional Vilnius court against his transfer to the US, which accuses the Russian national of attempting to illegally export goods included on a list of US defense articles.
Mr. Ustinov faces a minimum jail term of 20 years if extradited to the US. Yesterday, the Lithuanian court received the legal complaint and is now expected to pass it to the Court of Appeal, the court’s spokesman told BNS on Tuesday.
The Russian was taken into custody at the Vilnius airport on April 15 at the request of the US Department of Justice. On July 22, the High Court ruled to hand Dmitry Ustinov over to the US.

Of course, every embassy has their spies, us included, but the Russians have more sleepers to go with their embassy spies than pretty much anyone else, I'd say--here's a recent example (this lot included the seductive Miss Chapman):

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/ten_suspected_russian_spies_due_EQvVMC8bdwcZbNTv3YANcJ

U.S. officials have said the scandal would not damage President Barack Obama's vaunted "reset" of ties with the Kremlin, and the country planned no diplomatic actions in response.

Russia initially reacted with fury but has since been at pains to prevent the scandal spiraling into a major diplomatic crisis and said it does not expect the incident to harm relations.

And here is a guy who spied for us, was exchanged for the ten Russian spies, and still wanted to go home and not "cut and run:"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Sutyagin
http://www.globaltimes.cn/world/europe/2010-08/563506.html

There are Russian spies (recently convicted) in our ally Germany, too, that Russia wants back: http://www.worldtribune.com/2013/07/16/sleeper-agents-planted-during-cold-war-are-sentenced-in-germany/

The couple was arrested in October 2011, after Germany learned about the two of them from the FBI, which in 2010 received information about a Russian network of illegals from the defector Aleksandr Poteyev.

Heidrun was detained in Michelbach, Germany while passing on another coded message, while Andreas was arrested on the same day in Balingen, where he worked and rented an apartment.

The two had reportedly moved a lot from one part of Germany to another. And at the time of their arrest Andreas worked at the international technology company Schunk Group and Heidrun was a housewife.

The investigation into their activities failed to reveal any answers as to their real identities. There had been reports that in case of emergency extraction they were to call the Russian embassy introducing themselves as “Sasha and Olga Rost”.

The only things known to authorities about the couple’s spy activities are between 2008 and 2011.

Their spy names were identified as Pete and Tina, while German journalists were more creative and nicknamed Andreas as “Mr. Bomb” and “Mr. Terror”, while Heidrun was known as the “alpine cow.”

This Massachusetts-based Russian spy (part of the large group, above) managed to ship a bunch of Russian spies to Australia: http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/17888276/spy-linked-to-visa-rort-claims/

Ms Vavilova is described in Norilsk Nickel Australia documents as senior human resources manager. One of her roles was to make travel arrangements for more than a dozen Russian nationals who were sponsored for temporary visas in WA by Norilsk.

The company recently closed its Lake Johnston operations. _The Weekend West _has spoken to former employees who have accused the company of misusing temporary work visas to move unqualified Russian managers to Australia.

Though there is no direct evidence Norilsk used the 457 visa system to bring Russian intelligence agents to Australia, _The Weekend West _has established that last year Ms Vavilova helped a Russian mine worker enter WA after fleeing Botswana where he was facing minor charges. Botswana media later accused the man of being a Russian spy, which the company denied.

Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation declined to comment.

It's plain that the Cold War never really ended--we just haven't been talking about it as much.