MOSCOW: Russia is thinking of extraditing NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden as a ‘gift’ to President Donald Trump, US channel NBC reported on Friday.
Quoting a senior US official with access to highly sensitive intelligence reports, the channel said Moscow was considering the move ‘to curry favour’ with Trump.
Snowden’s Russian lawyer on Saturday dismissed the report, telling the Interfax news agency that the country had no legal basis to hand over his client. “All this talk is just ordinary speculation. Someone is indulging in wishful thinking,” said Anatoly Kucherena who has represented Snowden since his arrival in Russia in 2013. He insisted that the NSA whistleblower “lives in Russia absolutely lawfully.” Snowden’s US lawyer Ben Wizner told NBC that he was not aware of Moscow’s plans to extradite his client.
The former National Security Agency contractor shook the American intelligence establishment to its core in 2013 with a series of devastating leaks on mass surveillance in the US and around the world. He has been living in exile in Russia since the summer of 2013.
“Russia doesn’t trade in people and human rights, although American secret services constantly try to draw us into various acts of provocation,” Kucherena said.
Snowden wrote on Twitter on Friday that the NBC report was “irrefutable evidence that I never cooperated with Russian intel.” “No country trades away spies, as the rest would fear they’re next,” wrote Snowden.
I don't think Vladimir Putin is naive to betray an American who has exposed U.S. wrongdoing around the globe. A CIA agent, Phillip Agee, did that 4 decades ago, and he sought asylum in Cuba. He died in Cuba about a year ago, but Cuba never betrayed him – even though the U.S. had demanded from Cuba to turn him in to the U.S. during discussions with Cuba over lifting the U.S. embargo, and normalizing relations. If a poor country like Cuba kept its world and didn't sell out Phillip Agee for commercial and political reasons to the U.S., I don't see how Vladimir Putin would trash the Russian superpower prestige and surrender to the U.S. demand.If he does, he would set a precedent that Russia can be blackmailed, and be forced to "Cry Uncle,", that is, submit to the U.S. demands as an inferior state – as the late U.S. president Ronald Reagan who coined the phrase meant! I bet Putin won't allow that because he knows that if he yield to a U.S. demand on a issue, the precedent would mean that the U.S. would get tougher other global issues it has with Russia until Russia backs down on Crimea, on Ukraine, and who knows on what else! My take on the issue? If Fidel Castro didn't "Cry Uncle" on Phillip Agee, don't expect Putin to "Cry Uncle" to the U.S. for Snowden! The global prestige of Russia is not for sale! Nikos Retsos, retired professor, Chicago, USA
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