Snowden Casts a Chill Between Moscow and Washington

Asylum granted by Russia to the American “whistleblower” threatens the Obama-Putin summit planned for September.

A private one-on-one talk between Obama and Putin, before meeting at the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg on Sept. 5 and 6, had already been a sealed deal. Since the Kremlin granted asylum for one year to the National Security Agency deserter Edward Snowden on Thursday, nothing is quite working between the two heads of the former “big two” states.

Since Snowden arrived in Russia on June 23 from Hong Kong, the Obama administration has been urging their Russian counterparts to “return” the cumbersome fugitive, since there is no extradition treaty in good and due form between the two countries. The FBI and the FSB (the two countries’ intelligence services) fiercely negotiated, while U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder assured that Snowden would be placed under the protection of justice in his country.

After weeks of behind the scenes fighting and clashing, Russia has put an end to the legal mess that surrounded Snowden, without giving any notice to Washington. “We are extremely disappointed that the Russian government would take this step despite our very clear and lawful requests in public and in private to have Snowden expelled to the U.S. to face the charges against him,” said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney on Thursday. “We are evaluating the utility of a summit.”

Meanwhile, elected Republicans and Democrats criticize the “stab from Moscow,” the most opinionated among them even demanding a boycott of the G-20 summit. “This sets in motion a really negative dynamic,” said Andrew Weiss, researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington and a Russia specialist in the Clinton administration.

Contentious Issues

The chill had already begun shortly after the re-election of Vladimir Putin on March 4, 2012, ruining three years of patient efforts by Obama to trigger a “reset” in Russian-American relations. Up until then, the Kremlin and the White House had an especially vested interest in keeping the “red telephone” hotline permanently connected. The geopolitical context demands it, considering Afghanistan and the Iranian nuclear issue. The areas of cooperation have shrunken away, while contentious issues have increased: Russian support for the Assad regime in Syria, the quarrel over the missile shield, the too-slow reduction of strategic arms and the prohibition against American couples adopting Russian children.

“If you look at the major issues … it doesn’t look like there would be anything to sign,” said Angela Stent, a professor at Georgetown University and former national intelligence officer. At this point, the Russians themselves would be “very relieved” if Obama canceled his stop in Moscow, according to Dimitri Simes, an expert at the Center for the National Interest in Washington. However, Kremlin spokesman Yuri Ushakov, who met Friday with U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul, vigorously denies this, insisting that the Snowden affair is “insignificant.”

“It’s priceless,” noted Andrew Wood, former U.K. ambassador in Moscow.* Edward Snowden, the “whistleblower,” has been granted temporary asylum in a country known to shamelessly listen to the pillow talk of its own citizens.

“What role does Putin play?” ask U.S. leaders, dismayed. Has he taken a cheap shot in the public relations game, or does he want to reaffirm Russia’s global role by snubbing their old American rival? A bit of both, the experts say. “The Soviet and now Russian habit has always been to answer criticisms of their conduct with the playground insult ‘and you’re another,’” reports Andrew Wood. “Snowden in transit through Moscow was a chance to posture as a defender of human rights in answer to Western — for them most woundingly U.S. — comments on the recent Russian record.” Chances are, others argue, that control over the events has simply escaped the Kremlin.

Putin does not want to hear about Snowden, but he could not return him to be put in shackles in the United States without losing face, much less send him to Cuba, under the threat of unearthing the hatchet of war with Washington. The Obama administration, meanwhile, is back to square one: How can Snowden be silenced with regards to NSA operations, now that he is hiding in the tundra?

*Editor’s Note: The original article incorrectly identified the former ambassador as “Edward Mood.” This quotation, accurately translated, could not be verified.