Either a brave, or stupid move considering where he isâŚ
Perhaps both.
Holy shit.
Iâm kind of scared for him now.
So letâs assume Snowden is an American hero. All these critics are working to undermine him. A hero of the people. That makes them an enemy of the people. Working against us.
Surely the difference here is that in Russia, the reasonable assumption is the Government surveils everything you do as its default position, where as in the US it was kind of a surprising to most of us to learn the NSA had been successfully surveiling literally everything.
Do you think Snowden finds in obnoxious to have to lug his balls around in a wheelbarrow all the time?
Snowden got used. Is there anyone here who seriously thinks you get to ask Putin a question on TV without Putin knowing what the question is going to be and having a plan to get maximum mileage out of the exchange? Now Snowden, who we previously heard is staying out of the limelight because he doesnât want this to be about him, pens within hours a nice op-ed telling us repeatedly how he risked his life for us but weâre ungrateful bastards?
Oh, and heâs starting a discussion in Russia about something Putin doesnât want to discuss. Just like Pussy Riot or Anna Politkovskaya. He doesnât need a wheelbarrow for his balls, he can store them in his empty head. This is almost on par with that time he fled to Hong Kong and said heâs there because of all their freedoms.
My first reaction to this was that heâd been given a classic request he couldnât refuse. âWeâd like you to ask this question on TV. Itâs got nothing to do with the expiration of your asylumâ. But thatâs all a bit âlizard peopleâ, isnât it?
Snowden got used.
Of course the Kremlin propaganda machine wanted to play Snowden, but in the end all this does is help us all start the debate about mass surveillance in Russia instead of keeping it quiet. This is good for the Russian people and itâs good for society in general.
Youâre parroting the corporate media narrative that Snowden is simply naive and couldnât possibly see how Russia could try to use him in their favor by allowing him to question Putin.
Snowden is actually a very intelligent guy and has managed to keep the largest military-industrial complex the world has ever seen off his ass. I think he can use judgement in weighing the positives and negatives of questioning Putin, and he did.
I also find it pathetic that the western, corporatist media are trying to say this is a softball question:
âDoes Russia intercept, store or analyze, in any way, the communications of millions of individuals?â
How the living fuck is that a softball question? A softball question would have been âHow does Russia protect their citizens from American spying?â or some shit.
It was a very specific question that was actually difficult to run around. He specifically mentioned, âintercept, store or analyze, in any wayâ. That doesnât offer much wiggle room for dodging. He also said âcommunicationsâ as to cover everything from phone calls to emails. Once again, very little, if any, wiggle room.
He doesnât need a wheelbarrow for his balls, he can store them in his empty head.
When you donât have a good argument, resort to inane insults.
weâre ungrateful bastards?
You said it, not me.
Repeat after TV:
Oh wait, thatâs the old thinking pattern, stay tuned for the update:
There ya go, folks. Letting the TV think for you because itâs too much trouble to do it for yourselves.
Find yourself an actual Russian living in Russia. Ask them if they think Snowdenâs question is going to âstart a discussionâ about mass surveillance. Where are we going to see this discussion, by the way? RT? Pravda? Some of the other free Russian press?
Ask a Russian if they think Snowden made Putin look like a liar or Putin made Snowden look like he works for him.
Find yourself an actual Russian living in Russia. Ask them if they think Snowdenâs question is going to âstart a discussionâ about mass surveillance.
Youâre hilarious. That would be further discussion right there.
Whatâs your idea of starting the discussion? Saying nothing?
Do you not understand that this was on live television? Wouldnât it be a little naive to think that wouldnât start some discussion among those who watched it in Russia? Or do you think only Americans have a monopoly on basic intelligence?
Where are we going to see this discussion, by the way? RT? Pravda? Some of the other free Russian press?
Educate yourself, just as the USA has other alternative media outlets aside from our own corporatist propagandists: i.e., CNN, MSNBC, FOX âNewsâ, etc. - There are adversarial Russian outlets as well:
Many more if you bother to look.
Oh, and you really need to educate yourself on RT:
Snowden asks Putin LIVE: Does Russia intercept millions of citizensâ data?
Of course, RT, who is heavily influenced by the Kremlin is like many other media outlets which requires critical thinking very much like one should always use with American corporate media who is heavily influenced by Washington D.C., corporations and these evil bastards.
For example:
Ask a Russian if they think Snowden made Putin look like a liar or Putin made Snowden look like he works for him.
Well, you have dense Russians and you have intelligent Russians. Depends on which ones you ask.
Todayâs question-and-answer session on Russian TV between NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and Russian President Vladimir Putin did not go as Snowden had hoped.
Oh? It sounds like, as with Senator Wyden, Snowden wanted to get either an evasion or a lie, on the record. He got a bit of both. So if we believe Snowden, then it went exactly as he hoped, and only the Western mediaâs response to it failed to live up to expectations.
the Western mediaâs response to it failed to live up to expectations.
Failing to live up to expectations is the western mediaâs job for its corporatist owners.
Itâs up to us Americans to start thinking for our fucking selves beyond what corporate media tells us to think.
The investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov, perhaps the single most prominent critic of Russiaâs surveillance apparatus (and someone who has repeatedly criticised me in the past year), described my question as âextremely important for Russiaâ. It could, he said, âlift a de facto ban on public conversations about state eavesdropping.â
From the linked op-ed.
Oh course you want people talking openly about their dissatisfaction with the state. It makes it easier to round up the malcontents. 
PS: This forum needs a âknowing smirkâ smiley for my posts. The regular, âonly jokingâ smiley is over doing it.
Dude, even Marcy Wheeler is talking about Snowden being used for this. Is she a corporatist statist TV media propagandist now?
Even if you want to grant that Snowden is being used for this, what is the nature of the damage? How do you imagine this helping Putin? âPutin denied that Russia engages in NSA style surveillance!â is not a particularly surprising thing to have happen. Does the fact that Snowden asked the question make people believe Putin more than if anyone else had? Did Snowden respond to Putinâs answer with something like, âI am happy to hear you say that. Truly I am blessed to have been granted asylum in Russia, a country that now embodies the ideals of freedom America once aspired to but has fallen fromâ?
Weâre likely not the target audience. âI am happy to hear you say that. Truly I am blessed to have been granted asylum in Russia, a country that now embodies the ideals of freedom
America once aspired to but has fallen fromâ may be how itâs roughly presented by elements of the Russian media.
This makes Russia look like a place where speech and press are freer than in the US. This probably isnât ACTUALLY the case. So Putin probably benefits from this.
And weâve seen how these âconversationsâ go. If Snowdenâs revelations in the US only got a milquetoast response from the president and the corporate internet overlords, why would this much softer question cause any real change in Russia?
Low risk, high reward, from Putinâs standpoint. And Snowdenâs happy to beat this drum because itâs His Thing now. If there is to be any fallout from this, it will be indirect and distant.
