In What Way Is Snowden Worse than Depardieu?

At a meeting with lawyers and human rights activists in Sheremetyevo Airport, former CIA agent Edward Snowden stated his desire to remain in Russia.

It is believed that the Kremlin will keep an eye on the United States while it forms its official position on the matter. And Washington is not afraid to “twist the arms” of both its European and Russian partners.

Snowden’s disclosures have acted as a sort of moment of truth for opponents of the U.S. By their reactions, the U.S. can determine who is still capable of resistance, who retains the will to formulate its own sovereignty and who it will have to “sort out” as soon as possible. Or at the very least, the U.S. can create problems for them, so that any desire to counteract the United States’ inevitable global domination will be knocked aside.

Europe is already in a weakened condition, especially after the debacle of the forced landing of the Bolivian president’s plane. But for us, what is important is Russia’s position. We could seriously challenge the current attempt by the U.S. to quell any outrage over its global control and place ourselves at the forefront of the movement for a multipolar world. We could insist that Snowden has the right not only to receive asylum, but to cooperate with all our efforts to counteract U.S. hegemony as well. If Russia decides not to challenge the U.S. in this way, however, it will immediately find itself in a cohort of countries that are suppressed, humiliated and downtrodden by U.S. aggression: Japan, Germany, the EU and other so-called allies of the United States.

From a moral and legal point of view, Russia has every reason to let Snowden be and grant him citizenship. Doing that [for Snowden] would essentially be the same as with Depardieu, who was immediately given a Russian passport by Putin without any bureaucratic hurdles. It is necessary to act similarly with Snowden — if only because this man is fighting for justice, being open and honest with his fellow citizens and the world by opening their eyes to the antics of the U.S. intelligence services. And he needs to be saved from that penal machine that spares no one. We are talking about Snowden’s physical salvation.