And it would be one thing if it were a country that had any sort of positive track record on privacy protection. The idea that Russia of all places should be u

And it would be one thing if it were a country that had any sort of positive track record on privacy protection. The idea that Russia of all places should be used as an example of privacy protection vs. the US is _hilarious_. I mean, off the top of my head: Gazprom/Rosneft, Anna Politkovskaya, Alexander Litvinenko... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_Russia#Under_Putin_.28incl._2nd_Chechen_conflict.29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_R... And that's not to even just generally discuss the FSB, which is a proportionately larger and more corrupt version of the CIA and NSA combined. Just imagine if Bush or Obama were a former CIA officer, and had used a loophole in the Constitution to stay in power for more than a decade. Russia's human rights and privacy rights are deplorable. Good for Snowden and his sense of realpolitik, but let's not pretend this is anything more than nation-state theater.