![]() ![]() Soup to nuts. Remember the spy exchange in the summer of 2010? Ten Russian sleeper agents-which is not what Snowden is-were uncovered by the FBI in the U.S. The Obama administration totally fucked this up.Just like it would not get a good response out of Obama. You can't publicly shame him into doing something, it's not going to get a good response. You would also know that when dealing with thugs like Putin, you know that things like this are better handled quietly. Here's the thing: Putin responds to shows of strength, but only if he has room to maneuver. If you are a world leader worth your salt, and have a good diplomatic team working for you, you would know that. You can't back Putin into a corner and leave him no options.If a Russian Edward Snowden ended up in JFK Airport, there is no way in hell we'd turn him over to the Russians. Not in a hundred years, and not ever.This happened over a month after Snowden's arrival in Moscow, and after the charges of espionage were unsealed. Russia is a brutal place where whistleblowers are harassed and killed, but Russia, unlike the U.S., has no death penalty. And it is only because the Russians made a stink about it, that Eric Holder was forced to come out and assure the Russians that Edward Snowden won't be put to death.Where he was charged with espionage, for which the maximum punishent is death. The only place, by design, where Snowden could go was back to the U.S. unsealed the charges before it had Snowden in custody, revoked his passport, then downed the plane of the president of a sovereign state over other sovereign states because it thought Snowden was on board. The Obama administration trapped Snowden in Russia. The U.S.Assange insinuated himself into the situation and sent Snowden to Ecuador (the country granting him asylum) through Russia (his great friend). The Russians did not create the Snowden situation Julian Assange and the U.S.Americans, especially Americans who have never been to Russia, overestimate the abilities of both Putin and the Russians. Because, I mean, come on.Don't give him credit where credit isn't due. He is a knee-jerk, short-sighted little tyrant. Putin does not orchestrate, he reacts. Putin is no chess player.Similarly, Barack Obama does not have total control over the minutiae of the United States of America.He does not control everything that happens in the Russian Federation, a vast and often inhospitable landmass that spans 10 time zones. I am also seriously suggesting the following things: You aren't seriously suggesting that Vladimir Putin and the Russian government did not have complete, total, absolute control over the outcome of Edward Snowden entering that airport in Moscow?" ("That airport in Moscow" is called, say it with me now, SHEH-REH-MEH-T-YE-VO! See, helps to have a Russia expert around!)īecause O'Donnell didn't let me get a word in edgewise after that, let me explain. We then squabbled over whether Putin personally controls everything in Russia: what TV anchors say, everything that happens at Sheremetyevo, even every breath that Snowden takes. ![]() Like, for a good year and a half.īut I decided to contest O'Donnell's premise that Russia had this thing planned and under control from the beginning, and that they did, in fact, create the situation. Okay, no I was not surprised about their decision to include it in the official statement because Snowden was the catalyst for this decision, and it was a good decision because Russia and America have not been getting along and have not been getting anything done for a while now. But administration, are you surprised that the administration included it in their official statement about the decision?" They were in complete control of the outcome of what would happen to Snowden from the second he arrived at that airport. "Julia, to start with the Snowden factor, for the Russian statement to say, 'this is a situation which we did not create,' is of course a lie. Which is why I wish you'd let me finish answering your bullshit question, which went like this: READ: Obama Bails on His Inevitably Awkward Date With Putin In fact, it is how you introduced me: "Previously, she was a Moscow-based correspondent for Foreign Policy and The New Yorker." I'm not going to toot my own horn here, but I was there for three years, I'm a fluent, native speaker of Russian, and, god damn it, I know my shit. I was invited on the show to talk about Obama's (very wise) decision to cancel his Moscow summit with Putin, about which I wrote here. What bothers me is that, look: your producers take the time to find experts to come on the show, answer your questions, and, hopefully, clarify the issue at hand. That O'Donnell interrupted and harangued and mansplained and was generally an angry grandpa at me is not what I take issue with, however. Tonight, I went on Lawrence O'Donnell's show, and Lawrence O'Donnell yelled at me.
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