Kremlin 'helped Snowden from start'

[struggle4progress]

Source: The Times (UK) via The Australian

Ben Hoyle
From: The Times
August 27, 2013 10:33AM

... According to the story in Kommersant, a pro-Kremlin broadsheet, Mr Snowden contacted Russian officials in June, shortly after he fled the US.

The newspaper claimed that the former National Security Agency contractor spent several days in the Russian consulate in Hong Kong, celebrating his 30th birthday there, before flying to Moscow on June 23. He then spent more than a month in Sheremetyevo airport before Russia granted him a year's asylum.

A Western source confirmed the information to the newspaper, adding that the West thought it was possible that the Russian authorities had invited Snowden to go to Russia. It is likely that the "Russians themselves invited Snowden, passing the invitation on to him via the Chinese who were happy to get rid of him", a Western source was quoted as saying.

President Putin has previously said that Mr Snowden came to Russia uninvited. The Kommersant story does not directly contradict that claim ...

Read more: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/kremlin-helped-snowden-from-start/story-fnb64oi6-1226704837725

[ForgoTheConsequence]

1. Do you always read Rupert Murdoch publications?

Let me know if you find a Fox News article backing this up.

[Renew Deal]

4. The Kommersant is a Murdoch publication?

I didn't know he had media assets in Russia.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

8. don't be a smart ass.

The Australian is a News Corp publication and the headline has a right-wing bias.



Snowden's Moscow stay an accident, Russian paper reports

http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-snowden-moscow-stay-20130826,0,571572.story


Funny how another publication came away with a completely different interpretation of the Kommersant article. I see no proof that the Kremlin assisted Snowden "from the start".


Keep peddling right-wing publications and Rupert Murdoch bullshit though, just know that most of us aren't idiots and can see what you're doing.

[delrem]

22. Now that gives a paradigm lesson on "political spin".

Murdoch's tool cuts essential info to suggest through innuendo. The tool thinks that's protection from the charge of outright lying.
The Los Angeles Times didn't cut that info.

[Art_from_Ark]

24. And of course, the Times (UK) is also a Murdoch publication

[dawn frenzy adams]

26. The Kremlin was indeed helping Snowden!

Whatever Putin's motives are for granting Snowden asylum has nothing to do with human rights.


Here is an excerpt from an article from the St. Petersburg Times, dated July 24, 2013.

Why Putin Hates Snowden
By Michael Bohm

When Edward Snowden, with the assistance of his curators in the Russian government, held his makeshift news conference last Friday in Sheremetyevo Airport’s transit zone, it was no surprise that pro-Kremlin opinion makers dominated the short, invitation-only list of attendees. Among them were prominent lawyer and Public Chamber member Anatoly Kucherena, political analyst and State Duma Deputy Vyacheslav Nikonov and human rights ombudsmen Vladimir Lukin. Basking in the spotlight amid Snowden’s sudden reappearance after nearly a month of being incognito in the airport’s transit zone, they took full advantage of this PR opportunity, explaining to several hundred journalists on hand that Russia should offer Snowden political asylum because he is a refugee of U.S. repression.

“Snowden is not a criminal,” Lukin said, “and deserves asylum status.”

“He deserves protection,” Kucherena said. “We need to defend him. I consider him a hero. … [The U.S. government] is persecuting him.”

This kind of demagoguery is expected from Kremlin loyalists. But what was surprising and disheartening was that the Moscow-based directors of two respected global rights organizations, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, joined the chorus of support for Snowden’s quest to receive political asylum. It was unsettling to see these organizations in full solidarity with Kremlin spin doctors. Indeed, the two groups make strange bedfellows, particularly considering that these NGOs have been victims of government harassment and a state-sponsored smear campaign that depicts them as U.S.-paid agents.

These ardent Snowden supporters fail to understand a fundamental principle in asylum jurisprudence: Political asylum should be granted in cases of persecution, not prosecution. To qualify for asylum, Snowden must produce evidence that he is being persecuted based on his political opinion, race, religion, nationality or membership in a particular social group. These are United Nations and internationally recognized categories to determine the legitimacy of a person’s asylum request. Asylum should not be granted to suspected criminals like Snowden who are simply trying to avoid a jail sentence in their home country.

A good example of a legitimate asylum seeker would be Leonid Razvozzhayev, an opposition leader who fled to Ukraine in October to escape political persecution in Russia. When Razvozzhayev tried to seek political asylum in the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Kiev, he was seized by masked men believed to be Russian intelligence agents, handcuffed and dragged back to Moscow, where he is still being held in pretrial detention on trumped-up charges of “plotting riots.” In this case, both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch were correct in protesting Razvozzhayev’s kidnapping, detention and prosecution.


http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=37670

[uhnope]

34. my god I hope no one thinks Putin was acting out of concern for human rights

are people that ridiculous?

[kardonb]

27. snowden

do you really think the Russkies would leave proof of their complicity around for you to find ? LOL !!!

[struggle4progress]

2. Edward Snowden got stuck in Moscow 'after Cuba blocked entry' (Reuters via The Guardian)

Reuters in Moscow
Monday 26 August 2013 07.21 EDT

... Kommersant also said Snowden had spent a couple of days in the Russian consulate in Hong Kong ...

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/26/edward-snowden-moscow-cuba

[pnwmom]

12. Maybe Russia asked Cuba to block his entry,

leaving Russia to rescue Snowden.

Snowden must be very grateful.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

13. Hahaha.

Good to see the anti-Snowden crowd creating their own conspiracy theories. I love the irony.

[mimi85]

38. Hear, hear!

So true. And so it goes....

[snooper2]

46. so by saying that you are admitting the "pro-snowy" crowd are full of conspiracy theories?

[struggle4progress]

3. Report: Snowden stayed at Russian consulate while in Hong Kong (Washington Post)

By Will Englund
Updated: Monday, August 26, 7:47 AM

MOSCOW — Before American fugitive Edward Snowden arrived in Moscow in June — an arrival that Russian officials have said caught them by surprise — he spent several days living at the Russian Consulate in Hong Kong, a Moscow newspaper reported Monday.

The article in Kommersant, based on accounts from several unnamed sources, did not state clearly when Snowden decided to seek Russian help in leaving Hong Kong, where he was in hiding to evade arrest by U.S. authorities on charges that he leaked top-secret documents about U.S. surveillance programs ...

Kommersant cited conflicting accounts as to what brought Snowden to the consulate, on the 21st floor of a skyscraper in a fashionable neighborhood. It quoted a Russian close to the Snowden case as saying that the former NSA contractor arrived on his own initiative and asked for help. But a Western official also interviewed by the newspaper alleged that Russia had invited him ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/report-snowden-stayed-at-russian-consulate-while-in-hong-kong/2013/08/26/8237cf9a-0e39-11e3-a2b3-5e107edf9897_story.html

[struggle4progress]

5. Snowden's Moscow stay an accident, Russian paper reports (Los Angeles Times)

By Khristina Narizhnaya
August 26, 2013, 9:18 a.m.

... A Russian official told Kommersant that before flying to Moscow, Snowden spent two days at the Russian consulate in Hong Kong. Snowden told the Russians that he planned to ask for political asylum in a Latin American country and presented a ticket to Havana, with a 22-hour layover in Moscow, dated June 23. He said that his life was in danger and asked for help, citing international conventions for refugees ...

http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-snowden-moscow-stay-20130826,0,571572.story

[Wilms]

6. Pretty ironic.

If the Fourth Amendment survives we'll have Russia to thank.

[struggle4progress]

7. Report: Snowden reached out to Russia before arrival (CBS)

August 26, 2013, 12:48 PM

MOSCOW NSA leaker Edward Snowden spent two days in the Russian Consulate in Hong Kong directly before flying to Moscow on what turned out to be an abortive attempt to reach asylum in Latin America, the respected newspaper Kommersant reported Monday, citing unidentified sources in Snowden's circle and the Russian government.

If true, this would suggest greater Russian involvement in Snowden's efforts to escape American justice than President Vladimir Putin's government has acknowledged. The newspaper also reported that Cuba was instrumental in blocking Snowden's further travels ...

Kommersant, citing a Russian government official, reported that Snowden appeared at the Russian Consulate in Hong Kong on his own initiative two days before the flight, showed his Aeroflot ticket and asked for help. Two days after Snowden landed in Moscow, Putin said that his choice of travel route and his request for Russia's help had come as a "complete surprise." This was interpreted at the time as referring to his arrival in Moscow, but Putin did not specify ...

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57600107/report-snowden-reached-out-to-russia-before-arrival/

[JDPriestly]

30. Soooo?????

What's amazing about that? What's even interesting about it?

[struggle4progress]

9. Russian media report: How Snowden missed his flight to Cuba (Christian Science Monitor)

Snowden got stuck at a Moscow airport after Cuba 'blocked' entry, according to the Moscow daily Kommersant.
By Fred Weir, Correspondent / August 26, 2013

... The newspaper's story, which it said was based on the accounts of unnamed Russian officials and other "informed sources," says that Mr. Snowden approached the Russian consulate in Hong Kong with a request for help, and even spent two days there before boarding the Aeroflot flight to Moscow with a US passport the Russians knew had already been cancelled by US officials ...

A Kommersant source in Russian state agencies admitted that Snowden was in the Russian diplomatic mission in Hong Kong before the flight to Moscow," the paper says ...

Russian experts say they believe the Kommersant story is substantially accurate.

"It's pretty clear that Snowden planned his own actions, and knew what he was doing," says Viktor Baranets, a columnist on security issues for the Moscow daily Komsomolskaya Pravda ...

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2013/0826/Russian-media-report-How-Snowden-missed-his-flight-to-Cuba

[ForgoTheConsequence]

10. "from the start" implies something completely different......

Than what these articles are saying. A purposely misleading headline from a disgusting right wing rag owned by Ruptert Murdoch.

[struggle4progress]

16. Could be. Then again, Snowden's lawyer helps handle public relations for

Russia's Federal Security Service, so Snowden currently seems to have extremely good connections to Russian government

... Kucherena ... sits on the "public council" of the Federal Security Service (FSB), which was created by Putin in 2006. According to its website, the council works to "develop a relationship" between the security service and the public. Its fifteen members have to be approved by the head of the FSB ...
Snowden to stay in Moscow airport for now: lawyer
By Maria Antonova (AFP) – Jul 16, 2013

[delrem]

23. Good. So Snowden has a good lawyer.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/interview-with-edward-snowden-lawyer-anatoly-kucherena-a-912884.html

p.s., I pity you.

[struggle4progress]

25. Do you understand that the FSB is part of Russian intelligence?

Those of us who would like to try to make an educated guess about what's actually going on here --- rather than simply regarding Snowden as a hero because he can serve as a surrogate focus for larger issues --- will consider such matters

If you have anything, by way of concrete evidence or coherent argument based on concrete evidence, to offer then many people might be interested. But however emotionally satisfying you may find them, your rhetorical offers of "pity" don't really quite fit that bill

[delrem]

28. I ask "so?"

The *substance* of the issue is the material Snowden leaked, through carefully vetted journalists.
That has nothing to do with an "evil Russian/Chinese empire" and reveals nothing that high level spooks don't know.

About that material:
1. It is *required* that a democracy know it.
2. It does not aid and abet "terrorism", however the word is twisted.
Snowden is stranded in Russia because the US is blocking free passage to a country that would welcome him as a political refugee.
In the meantime, he needs help, and it appears that he has help and can hire a damn good and "connected" lawyer.

[struggle4progress]

29. Or mebbe Russian intelligence/counter-intelligence has a real interest in him

That wouldn't be surprising, given that almost as soon as he landed in Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post, supposedly having close ties to government in Beijing, reported he had shown folk lists of internet addresses in China allegedly hacked by the NSA. Der Spiegel later reported Snowden had given them information that could endanger lives. Meanwhile, of course, Greenwald was trumpeting that Snowden had documents that could prove to be the US worst nightmare

In this context, in fact, how could anyone not imagine Russian intelligence could be highly motivated to cultivate a relationship with Snowden?

... in Hong Kong, Snowden gave an interview to the South China Morning Post and shared details about hacking operations aimed at Hong Kong and mainland China ...
German Magazine Der Spiegel Lands Latest Edward Snowden NSA Scoop
Michael Calderone
Posted: 07/01/2013 3:41 pm EDT
Updated: 07/02/2013 10:11 am EDT

... SPIEGEL has decided not to publish details it has seen about secret operations that could endanger the lives of NSA workers. Nor is it publishing the related internal code words ...
Cover Story: How the NSA Targets Germany and Europe
By Laura Poitras, Marcel Rosenbach, Fidelius Schmid, Holger Stark and Jonathan Stock

... Glenn Greenwald of the Guardian told an Argentine newspaper, La Nacion, that ... "The U.S. government should be on their knees every day praying that nothing happens to Snowden, because if something happens, all information will be revealed and that would be their worst nightmare" ...
Journalist: Snowden has more documents that could harm U.S.
By Steve Almasy, CNN
updated 12:19 PM EDT, Mon July 15, 2013

[delrem]

32. Of course you turn your innuendo into reality, so you can smash.

That's why I pity you.

[struggle4progress]

35. I provided links and argument; you merely provide putdowns

[delrem]

37. You provided innuendo. And that's what you ride on.

[treestar]

43. are you kidding?

a lawyer should not have to be "connected," not in a free society. A lawyer who represents the FSB? And you have problems with the NSA?



Snowden is fleeing prosecution, not persecution. Persecution is something that Russia has a long history of.

[struggle4progress]

11. REPORT: Edward Snowden Spent His 30th Birthday In The Russian Consulate In Hong Kong (SFGate)

Michael Kelley, provided by Business Insider
Published 6:52 am, Monday, August 26, 2013

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden spent several days, including his 30th birthday, in the Russian consulate in Hong Kong before flying to Moscow on June 23, according to a report in the Russian newspaper Kommersant.

A Western source reportedly confirmed the report to the paper, saying that "Russians themselves invited Snowden, passing the invitation on to him via the Chinese who were happy to get rid of him," according to Agence France-Presse's translation.

Kommersant noted that the U.S. reportedly requested that Hong Kong extradite Snowden on June 20, and that Snowden's passport was voided on June 21. Snowden reportedly reached out to Russian officials on June 21, which was his 30th birthday ...

http://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/REPORT-Edward-Snowden-Spent-His-30th-Birthday-In-4762559.php

[mimi85]

41. Any word on the bday menu?

Having a Russian step-grandpa who fled Georgia in 1917 I was introduced (and loved) Russian food and my god, I was too young to participate, but the parties and singing were amazing. There was (and maybe still is) a large Russian contingent in L.A.

I remember going with him to LA (from OC - gag) to pick up handmade piroshkis from a tiny sweet lady and my god, the borscht was to die for. My dad continued making it long after Papa George's death. I don't eat meat now, but I would def make an exception if I could have a bowl of it tonight.

I have no idea what kind of vodka they drank, but it worked. And they all seemed to favor Camel cigs. The singing was so melancholy. He had a friend who tried to teach me Russian. That didn't work out too well, I'm afraid. I miss him dearly.

Hopefully, Mr. Snowden got some good times on his bday. Not that I give a shit about him. 30? I'd love to be there in ten years when he realizes what an asshole he was (is). No sympathy from me.

[MannyGoldstein]

14. Snowden is pretty convenient for Russia

Pretty convenient for the US 99%, too.

[Enrique]

15. latest breaking bullshit

[struggle4progress]

17. Various versions of the story are in the Guardian, Washington Post, LA Times,

Christian Science Monitor, SF Chronicle, and elsewhere

[Enrique]

18. yes, there is an unlimited supply of anonymous government officials

spewing an unending stream of bullshit about Snowden to those stenographers, and all of it helpfully brought here to DU by dedicated people.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

19. ...

A+

[struggle4progress]

20. If you could support that view, of course, many of us would be much interested,

since in this case the first impression will be that the story originates in Russian press with Kremlin ties -- which might seem to undermine somewhat your apparent theory that the tale originated with faceless Federal bureaucrats who then spoon-fed it to spineless stenographers

[pocoloco]

47. ....with shit for brains!!

[closeupready]

49. Yet, you chose a bullshit source, meaning no 'various versions' exist

elsewhere.

[SoapBox]

21. Traitor Eddie...you've been a very busy boy.

How's it being a Rusky now?

[ConcernedCanuk]

31. I don't give a rat's ass who helped Snowden

.
.
.

Snowden outed the NSA - which was much needed IMO.

CC

[Tarheel_Dem]

33. "I don't give a rat's ass who helped Snowden". Good to know where you stand.

[struggle4progress]

36. Well, you aren't concerned about US electoral issues. Those of us who are,

have to think these things through differently

[ConcernedCanuk]

50. Not concerned about electoral issues? - How did you come up with that conclusion?

.
.
.

I'm living beside the most powerful and aggressive nation in the World,

with the capability of blowing any country off the map.

(with the exception of China and Russia I think)

I'm very concerned about who runs the USA;

unfortunately, I believe that Presidents do not run the USA.

It's the MIC, Big Oil et al.

Believe me, or not,

I'm concerned.

CC

[treestar]

44. Really? Wow.

So your alleged concerns about the NSA are false. You just care about Snowden.

[bemildred]

39. Pooty-Poot knows a good political hand when it falls in his lap. nt

[Warren Stupidity]

42. Where "from the start" means "after it happened". NT.

[blackspade]

45. Sigh

Another bullshit story about Snowden.

More RW 'reporting' gobbled up by the pro NSA domestic spying crowd.

[closeupready]

48. Uh, huh. Get back to me with a REAL, not fake, story.

This is not a legitimate news source.

[xocet]

52. What would this story be over on Parallel Earth(TM)? n/t

[MADem]

53. Gee, someone put me on IGNORE for suggesting this!

Funny how, for the longest time, when Snowden left that fancy hotel in HK, no one knew where he was hiding. Turns out he was hiding with the RUSSIANS!!!

Also, IIRC, this wasn't Snowden's FIRST visit to Hong Kong, either.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2339202/Lindsay-Mills-Edward-Snowden-set-wed-fled-Hong-Kong-leak-NSA-secrets.html

The whistleblower who leaked the NSA's secrets thought about marrying his girlfriend and had previously taken her on a romantic break to Hong Kong - where he was last seen fearing arrest.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/11/edward-snowden-lindsay-mills-guardian

Mills's blog and social media accounts reveal the couple visited Hong Kong once before, on a vacation, and also lived in Japan. Mills used the blog as a personal diary and promotional tool for her work as a member of the Waikiki Acrobatic Troupe, a collection of around 30 dancers.

Wonder if he visited the Russian Embassy on his previous visit?? It's an ENTIRELY REASONABLE question to ask...