Dmitry Babich, the observer of Voice of Russia Radio. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
During his big press conference with ordinary people, Putin answered Edward Snowden’s question. It caused a propaganda boom in the West. Newspapers of the UK, Germany, France, and the USA saw “a directed episode” in the question. They say Snowden is in Putin’s pocket and asks only comfortable approved questions.
Süddeutsche Zeitung calls Snowden “Putin’s poodle.” More than a decade ago British Prime Minister Tony Blair was nicknamed “poodle” for his peculiar appearance. Blair was so enthusiastic about backing US President George W. Bush in the Iraqi campaign that the nickname gained a political character.
However, how can a poodle make a bold claim in the foreign media? Snowden’s article in The Guardian says that he asked Putin about the illegal wiretapping of citizens, just like he did Obama ("Vladimir Putin must be called to account on surveillance just like Obama" http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/18/vladimir-putin-surveillance-us-leaders-snowden). Snowden writes that he is not satisfied with Putin’s answers, but explains the real motives of his critics: “Experts criticized not the President’s scant answer, but the fact that I had asked the question at all.”
Why? Recently German newspapers praised Snowden for revealing the fact of wiretapping of Chancellor Merkel’s calls by US special services. Snowden met with German MPs in Russia and spoke about the case of wiretapping calls by top German officials through Skype. Why are German journalists so angry about Snowden’s question to Putin?
The fact that Snowden lives in Russia, communicates with foreign guests freely, writes articles to any newspapers he likes and asks Putin questions ruins a myth about Russia as “a totalitarian regime.” It is a nice totalitarian regime, when you complain about a president who lets you stay in his country to foreign newspapers.
Such articles would have been impossible under Brezhnev or Stalin. Snowden hasn’t served Russia, he has served to free humanity. Russia has as many reasons for loving him as German does. But for some reason only Russia could save him from American justice. Other “more democratic” countries fear to do this. It seems Russia is not only stronger and braver, but also more democratic than Germany and the UK. It is such a humiliation! Thus, journalists of the UK, Germany, the USA criticize Snowden for “a poor question”, but didn’t even read attentively the question to Putin.
Die Zeit, which reports on “Putin’s direction”, wishes Snowden sat in an “FSB capsule”, was humiliated and abandoned. The anti-Russian newspaper called the Moscow Times predicted such a fate for Snowden a year ago. It criticizes Russia for absence of freedom of speech, situated in the center of Moscow. They predicted that Snowden would be as quiet as the grave. I don’t think so. To see this, one shouldn’t meet Snowden personally. Snowden couldn’t write articles to The Guardian, communicate with German investigators, ask Putin sharp questions from “the capsule.” Snowden is free, and it irritates his enemies.
