Snowden's Second Thoughts

The Financial Times over the weekend has an interesting story by Geoff Dyer about Edward Snowden.  Snowden is not a friend to the U.S but he needs to think before he opens his mouth in Russia, especially to criticize his host.  The article claims he has blamed Russia, inferring that they were making an implicit threat against the U.S by releasing software that was said to be from the National Security Agency.  It was said to be an indirect threat related to blaming Russia for the theft of information from the Democratic National Committee.  The thought goes that if we criticize them for hacking, they might show what the U.S has been hacking.  That does seem a little far fetched, not because it may not be accurate about what was said, but because the Russians are not likely to get much sympathy from anyone over that issue.

Snowden also had claimed the Russians went too far in their control over their populations and failed in human rights.  I'm sure this did not come as much of a surprise to anyone, but the real surprise may be for him.  The Russians are not very forgiving.  He is there as their "guest" says the Kremlin's leader.  Guests generally do not criticize their host while they are still dependent upon them.  Perhaps the publicity is related to the new Oliver Stone film, which is mostly Stone's usual fantasy view of the world and not the most accurate of portrayal.  We will have to see, but my guess is the interviews and criticism are trying to fit the narrative of the Stone story and not reality.