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> If #Snowden can't find asylum, it will be depressingly clear that the US not only eavesdrops on the world but runs it. - @JPBarlow https://twitter.com/jpbarl

> If #Snowden can't find asylum, it will be depressingly clear that the US not only eavesdrops on the world but runs it. - @JPBarlow https://twitter.com/jpbarlow/status/351937848217317380 https://twitter.com/jpbarlow/status/351937848217317380 I am trying to imagine what leverage we have over Russia.

rangibaby 13y ago
I was thinking about this, and maybe they have recorded Putin et al admitting fraud in the last Russian elections?
- Ygg2 13y ago
  Why would they need to have that? Everyone (especially the Russians) know it's faked already... They are slapping the Russians where they hurt most - their wallets. They are probably threatening to lock or freeze Russian head honcho's accounts.
sgaither 13y ago
The U.S. and Russia are still large strategic and economic partners. There's other political balls being juggled around, like the ongoing conflict in Syria. It's not necessarily "leverage"
pixelpanic 13y ago
> I am trying to imagine what leverage we have over Russia. Russians don't want a cold war again
- iuguy 13y ago
  It never ended, at least not in the eyes of governments.
pathy 13y ago
Snowden is nothing more than a pawn for Russia. They will grant him asylum if it suits their needs. If Russia think they can gain more from handing over Snowden than granting him asylum/sending him off to another (friendly) country they will. He has become a pawn in the political game, unsurprisingly. Is it worth more to annoy USA or reaping potential benefits from handing him over for Russia? I don't know, time will tell.
objclxt 13y ago
> I am trying to imagine what leverage we have over Russia. It's not about leverage, it's about the rules of the game. Russia and the US manage to be on fairly good diplomatic terms whilst both spending large amounts of money spying on the other. Because it's important to both countries that the diplomatic channels don't collapse completely certain 'expectations' have evolved around intelligence gathering and espionage. Case in point: if you happened to work for the CIA/FBI and walked into the Russian embassy to try and defect there's a very strong chance the Russians would shop you back to the US (this happened to Robert Hannsen after the fall of the USSR - it was only because of a FBI screw-up he wasn't caught). It's just not worth the pain for Russia. They almost certainly already have better intelligence on the NSA than Snowden could provide. It's naive to imagine they don't have any human intelligence already in place on that front.

rangibaby 13y ago

I was thinking about this, and maybe they have recorded Putin et al admitting fraud in the last Russian elections?

Ygg2 13y ago
Why would they need to have that? Everyone (especially the Russians) know it's faked already... They are slapping the Russians where they hurt most - their wallets. They are probably threatening to lock or freeze Russian head honcho's accounts.

sgaither 13y ago

The U.S. and Russia are still large strategic and economic partners. There's other political balls being juggled around, like the ongoing conflict in Syria. It's not necessarily "leverage"

pixelpanic 13y ago

> I am trying to imagine what leverage we have over Russia. Russians don't want a cold war again

iuguy 13y ago
It never ended, at least not in the eyes of governments.

pathy 13y ago

Snowden is nothing more than a pawn for Russia. They will grant him asylum if it suits their needs. If Russia think they can gain more from handing over Snowden than granting him asylum/sending him off to another (friendly) country they will. He has become a pawn in the political game, unsurprisingly. Is it worth more to annoy USA or reaping potential benefits from handing him over for Russia? I don't know, time will tell.

objclxt 13y ago

> I am trying to imagine what leverage we have over Russia. It's not about leverage, it's about the rules of the game. Russia and the US manage to be on fairly good diplomatic terms whilst both spending large amounts of money spying on the other. Because it's important to both countries that the diplomatic channels don't collapse completely certain 'expectations' have evolved around intelligence gathering and espionage. Case in point: if you happened to work for the CIA/FBI and walked into the Russian embassy to try and defect there's a very strong chance the Russians would shop you back to the US (this happened to Robert Hannsen after the fall of the USSR - it was only because of a FBI screw-up he wasn't caught). It's just not worth the pain for Russia. They almost certainly already have better intelligence on the NSA than Snowden could provide. It's naive to imagine they don't have any human intelligence already in place on that front.