By Stephen Wilson
It might just be pure coincidence! Maybe someone has a sick sense of humour!
But just before Snowden left Sheremetyevo airport, Tom Hank's film 'The Terminal' was being shown on Russian television. The film tells of how a political refugee is stranded at the terminal in an American airport and is denied asylum by American officials. If you missed it once, you could watch it again and again! Edward Snowden is not Tom Hanks, so Russians who encounter him should not be too disappointed. But Snowden should be relieved that he did not share the luckless fate of the character who was stranded in the Terminal. For yesterday,the Russian Federation granted him one year temporary asylum. It is not quite complete political asylum, but it is far better than being trapped in 'the No-man's Land' of an airport, unsure of your fate.
Snowden has already been offered paid employment, and appears to have made supportive friends. His lawyer Anatoly Kucherena brought him a Moscow Guide book and Dostoyevsky's book 'Crime and Punishment'. Snowden has stated he intends to immerse himself in learning the Russian language and culture. Given the fact that America has blocked all the airways to Latin America, there seems a distinct possibility that Russia will remain his permanent home. Even if Snowden managed to reach a South American Republic offering him asylum, there is no guarantee that this refuge might be revoked after a government change-over. Russia appears to be the only power capable of standing up to the American demands for his extradition. In fact, the Americans don't seem to grasp that since Russia has no extradition treaty with the U.S., they have no obligations to deport him to them. They also forget the terminal of an airport is not viewed as the national territory of a country, according to International norms and law!
A WHISTLE-BLOWER
American officials insist that Snowden be handed over to them for betraying official secrets his post obliged him to observe. They regard him as 'a traitor' who has undermined the national security of America' by exposing a special surveillance programme designed to monitor potential terrorist threats. However, this programme involves not only spying on the e-mail of American and European citizens, but tapping the telephones of staff at N.A.T.O. Headquarters.
The C.I.A . don't even trust their own 'partners'! Many Germans are enraged at those revelations and now see Snowden as a great hero! Of course, his former employers don't see things that way. He is viewed by them as a criminal and worse, a traitor. Snowden correctly claims that he has never betrayed the spirit of the American constitution where the state is obliged to respect the personal rights of its people and not infringe them by illegally encroaching on their private space! In fact, Snowden and others can present very prudent and plausible arguments that it is the American government who is breaking the law, and not he himself! Unfortunately, you won't read that in most of the mass media, especially The Moscow Times.
WHAT DO RUSSIANS THINK OF SNOWDEN?
It is highly possible that Putin, being Putin, is not particularly fond of Snowden. In fact, he most likely perceives him as a 'traitor' for betraying the secret services he worked for. For Putin, fidelity to the organisation you work for is a sacred tenet. Regardless of how your organisation behaves,you support him. Turning whistleblower is taboo. Putin finds his situation a little embarrassing. He would have been happy if some Latin American country would help him wash his hands of Snowden. However, to hand him over to American officials who again have made themselves look arrogantly bullying would be to lose face. Nobody likes to cave in to the threats of bullies. He declared that Snowden could stay in Russia as long as he did not release any more information which damaged 'Our American partners'. This statement was supposed to appease the Americans a little. It did not! The American officials remain indignant and angry. They perceive the granting of asylum as an intended slight on America. But, there was no intended insult or slight. Snowden just appeared in the terminal of an airport and wouldn't, or couldn't move to another destination. It was all almost an accident.
Most other Russians are sympathetic to Snowden. This is not mainly because of Anti-American sentiment, which is often superficially pragmatic, but because simple Russians tend to feel sorry for the underdog. They look at his photo and remark 'God,he looks so naive'. He has even become a celebrity in Russia. Some Russians propose offering him a medal! He is particularly popular amongst Russian women, who have offered him a place to stay in their apartments. In this regard, it would make sense for Snowden to keep his agreement with Putin and keep a very low profile.
Russian officials think that the crisis will blow over! Whoever heard of international relations being broken off because of a spy scandal or a whistle-blower. They are hoping time will sort things out, and the Snowden case will eventually sink into oblivion.
RUSSIA IS NOT THE BEST PLACE TO REQUEST POLITICAL ASYLUM
What makes the Snowden case a little odd is that Russia has never been the ideal place for political refugees. Russia has never had a history of offering political refuge to oversea dissidents. When foreign communists were granted asylum in the 1930's, it turned out to be a double edged sword. Many were either shot or imprisoned during the great purges. In the 1970's, Marxists who attempted to claim asylum in East Germany were actually handed back over to the governments who were pursuing them. The fact that Snowden has just been granted temporary political asylum represents a rare event. It should not be an exceptional event. The constitution of the Russian Federation grants political asylum to political refugees. It is enshrined under article 63 of the constitution where it insists on providing refuge to political refuges facing persecution in their own country. And should Snowden be returned, he would almost certainly face persecution and an unfair trial. To think otherwise would be naive or idiotic. So Snowden deserves to be granted full political asylum and the right to a decent livelihood in Russia. It is myopic and misleading to portray him as a criminal or traitor. On the contrary, he is a misunderstood patriot.
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