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Edward Snowden asks Vladi­mir Putin about Russian spying on its citizens Edward Snowden asks Vladi­mir Putin about Russian spying on its citizens
(35 minutes later)
MOSCOW — Who should turn up in the middle of Vladimir Putin’s annual call-in meeting with the nation Thursday but Edward Snowden, the fugitive former U.S. intelligence contractor now hiding in Russia? Appearing on a video link, he tossed the Russian president a fat question and was answered as a comrade in arms. MOSCOW — American fugitive Edward Snowden made a surprise appearance during Russian President Vladi­mir Putin’s annual call-in meeting with the nation on Thursday, submitting what critics considered a softball question about domestic surveillance in the country where Snowden has taken refuge.
The Russian leader took full advantage — denying that his government engages in large-scale monitoring and deflating Snowden’s effort to cast himself as a spokesman for civil liberties.
“Mr. Snowden you are a former agent, a spy,” Putin greeted him. “I used to work for an intelligence service. We can talk one professional language.”“Mr. Snowden you are a former agent, a spy,” Putin greeted him. “I used to work for an intelligence service. We can talk one professional language.”
Snowden posed his question in English, which caused some consternation. Putin joked that he didn’t understand American English and waited for a moderator to translate. Finally, it came: Snowden, posing his question in English, asked whether Russia collected the communications of millions of its citizens in a manner similar to the United States. Putin responded by saying that such surveillance is conducted under the law. “You have to get court permission to stalk a particular person,” he said.
Does Russia spy on its own citizens the way the United States has done? asked Snowden, who revealed an array of secret National Security Agency surveillance programs. “Thank God, our special services are strictly controlled by the state and society and their activity is regulated by law,” Putin said. Besides, he added, “We don’t have as much money as they have in the States and we don’t have the technical devices that they have.”
Oh no, Putin said, Russian eavesdropping is strictly controlled by the law. “You have to get court permission to stalk a particular person,” he said. The response was quickly dismissed by Russia experts, who noted that Russians often have their private conversations leaked, presumably by Russian security services.
“Certainly, we do not take liberty of such a vast scale, an uncontrolled scale. Hopefully, we will never take this liberty. Besides, we do not have the hardware and money the United States has,” he said. In a tweet in Russian, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow offered the former National Security Agency contractor its own answer: “Snowden would probably be interested to know that Russian laws allow the control, storage and study of all data in the communication networks of the Russian Federation.”
“Thank God, our special services are strictly controlled by the state and society and their activity is regulated by law,” Putin said. Snowden’s question, submitted to Putin by video link, seemed to be aimed at putting Putin in the same rhetorical corner that caught U.S. Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper, Jr., before the avalanche of NSA leaks began.
Russians who have had what they thought were private conversations leaked by what was presumed to be Russian security services might have been surprised by the response. When Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asked Clapper during a congressional hearing whether the United States gathered data on millions of Americans, Clapper denied that it did so, an answer that was proven false by documents Snowden supplied to news organizations including The Washington Post.
What Snowden thought remained unknown. He has been holed up in an undisclosed location, presumably in Moscow, since Putin granted him asylum last year. And his face was long gone from the television screen by the time Putin answered his question. Snowden has faced allegations that he was working on Russia’s behalf when he absconded with a massive trove of classified documents — a charge that he has consistently denied. He has also been painted by some as a hypocrite for fleeing to a country known for all-encompassing surveillance of its citizens.
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow, however, offered Snowden its own answer to his question. In a tweet in Russian, the embassy said: “Snowden would probably be interested to know that Russian laws allow the control, storage and study of all data in the communication networks of the Russian Federation.” After the exchange with Putin, Snowden’s critics scoffed at the episode.
“Snowden celebrates Pulitzer by turning into Putin’s propaganda tool,” former NSA General Counsel Stewart Baker said in a comment posted on Twitter, referring to the Pulitzer prizes awarded to the Post and The Guardian newspapers this week for their Snowden coverage.
Miller reported from Washington.