A Suitcase with a Handle

Ex-National Security Agency (NSA) employee Edward Snowden, who has been in Sheremetevo Airport for a month already, could leave the transit zone today, said his lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena. And because of that, the United States is threatening to boycott the Olympic Games in Sochi.

Even back at the time of the Boston bombings, I was writing about how the strings of Washington’s domestic politics were being pulled to ultimately blackmail Russia regarding the Sochi Olympics.

And when Snowden sprung up in Sheremetevo and didn’t leave immediately, but rather stuck around as a transit passenger, it was obvious that the partners in this game were bound to seriously get on each other’s nerves. It was also obvious that this game would not ignore the subject of the Sochi Olympics.

And then American senator Lindsey Graham announced that the U.S. should boycott the Sochi Olympics if Russia granted political asylum to Edward Snowden.

Senator McCain is demanding a broadening of the Magnitsky List*: “I would be very harsh” with Russia, he said. And then the State Department announced that the extradition of the former NSA contractor has become a priority issue.

Yes, the situation surrounding this NSA worker is not simple. Russia didn’t immediately punt Snowden to his next destination, like China did; but all the same, our country brought the “partner’s” wrath upon herself.

I’ve said it before multiple times and I’m ready to repeat it again: As a carrier of any kind of useful information, Snowden is not needed by Russia. He is the owner of the CIA’s secret that the NSA is trying to listen to everything and read everyone’s correspondence; he didn’t discover America for us. In this sense, for Russia, Snowden is simply an empty suitcase without a handle, one that is bothersome to drag around any further. And the fact that it’s empty is even more annoying.

And so the situation for Russia has these particular cons.

At the same time, a suitcase is the type of thing that is a pity to throw away. But if you could attach a handle, then you could sell it. All the more so if there is a buyer for it, especially if he’s very insistent.

Yes, our “partner” is so insistent that he is ready to not only purchase Snowden, but to take him with gifts or by force. So, in the search for the black cat in a white room, he even organized a forced landing in Vienna for Bolivian President Evo Morales, who was flying from Russia. Beforehand, the “partner” had organized a denial of flyover permission for the Bolivian president’s plane over France’s, Italy’s and Portugal’s airspace. But there was one problem — Edward Snowden wasn’t on board.

In general, the “partner” has lost his nerve. And despite Vienna’s announcement that they voluntarily stopped and checked Morales’s plane in case Snowden was on board, and despite the fact that France and Spain denied that they closed off their airspace to Morales’s plane, everyone understands that Washington’s ears are glued to these events.

Snowden isn’t useful for anyone anymore. And the scandal became serious — Bolivia’s Permanent Representative to the U.N., Sacha Lorenti Soliz, commented on the plane’s forced landing, calling it an “act of aggression and a serious violation of international law.” Soliz called the event the equivalent of an attempted kidnapping and urged U.N. General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon to react to the incident by conducting an inspection of Morales’s plane in Vienna.

And what about Russia?

In fact, by keeping calm and limiting ourselves to making statements that we are against Snowden undertaking activities that harm the interests of Russia and “our partner,” we have the opportunity to attach a handle to his empty suitcase and sell it on this occasion at a slightly higher cost.

Some even hold the opinion that Russia will not give Snowden back simply because we are afraid to appear weak in front of our all-powerful “partner.” But in this case, such an opinion doesn’t mean anything. For so long, the “partner” could care less about anything or anyone, so much so that he can’t even hypothetically imagine that in the world any other interests even exist. But in this situation with the undesired traveler, it is not bad to remember that Russia also has her own interests, and in exchange for Snowden it would be nice to get But, Kalugin, Akhmadov and Nalbandov** back in Russia. Furthermore, these people have been subject to international arrest warrants by Interpol.

Bargaining here would be appropriate.

The author is Vice President of the International Association of Veterans of the Anti-Terror Division “Alfa.”

*Editor’s note: A list of Russian officials banned from travelling in the U.S.
**Editor’s note: Russian dissidents seeking asylum in the United States.