Putin Earned Himself a Point

Vladimir Putin’s decision to grant Edward Snowden asylum for a year, in spite of repeated and solemn warnings from Washington, represents a serious humiliation for Barack Obama. Above all, Putin’s actions highlighted the United States’ growing limitations in imposing its agenda in a progressively multipolar world. In the absence of an extradition treaty with Russia, angry protests from the White House have little influence with the Kremlin. Obama could go one step further by canceling his meeting with Putin planned for next month in Moscow.

The president of the United States maintained conciliatory relations with Russia during his first term, waiting for help with some of Washington’s serious international difficulties regarding the Iranian nuclear challenge, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the fight against Islamist terrorism or the situation in the Middle East. Obama has obtained little more than smooth talk from Putin who, on the contrary, has strengthened his stance on confrontation with the West. In crucial matters, such as the Syrian conflict, Russia has taken its defiance up to Cold War levels, becoming the most solid ally for a bloodthirsty tyrant like Bashar al-Assad.

With the Snowden case, Putin earned himself a point. The Russian president’s blunt and expanded repressive record matters little in his own country, where it has intensified after his return as head of state a year ago. Snowden will not be a hero for the U.S. government, but his actions that led to the global trauma concerning the virtually uncontrolled espionage of the National Security Agency (NSA) have had the virtue of waking the rest of the world to an intolerable reality authorized by American laws. In this wave of sympathy for the persecuted accuser, the asylum granted by Putin changes him into a kind of human rights champion for many.

The uncertainty for almost a month and a half of Snowden’s future has diverted the attention away from issue at hand: The NSA’s front assault to individual liberties. However, this event has produced sufficient encouraging signs of a less indulgent attitude in the U.S. toward the surveillance. The group of people who want to limit the NSA’s power is growing in strength along with the first open critiques of the program.