Putin refuses to extradite Snowden. Officially, it is because the USA will not guarantee that he would be subject to the death penalty. Putin seems to enjoy watching Obama squirm.
Now, I know that Putin opposes aiding the Syrian rebels (Assad owes Russia about $8 billion for weapons sold to them)…and Putin wants his naval base in Syria.
Along with Putin’s ambition to be a big player, it seems that he likes stepping on toes (the US).
Do you see this the same way?
I don’t really follow int’l relations so things like this often take me by surprise but Putin’s unabashed attempts to make Obama look foolish when they met a month or so ago puzzled me. The Daily Show showed one clip where Obama was trying to defuse some the tension by making some joke and Putin just undercut it completely by commenting directly on the subtext.
I was like, ‘when did we kick your puppy and is it still alive so we can do it again?’
He’s playing to the public in Russia. The Russian “man in the street” is deeply anti-American. It’s a poisonous combo of decades (almost 100 years now) of propaganda/brainwashing, nationalism that requires an antagonist, humiliation at losing the “cold war”, and cultural “euro” snobbery.
No. If he wanted to humiliate Obama there would be regular TV appearances by Snowden…
Wouldn’t that be awkward if Snowden doesn’t have asylum?
‘Coming to you LIVE from the Moscow Int’l Airport baggage claims area, it’s Charlie Rose with Edward Snowden’
“Is Putin Enjoying This? (Humiliating Obama)”
Putin is being Putin. Leadership in the global community isn’t like a 5th grade student council election. The American POTUS is doing just fine – unless you’re an Obama ‘hater’ in which case he (Obama) is crying himself to sleep at night.
Obama can use some comeuppance. He’s an arrogant prick. Using Snowden to rub his nose in it is fairly harmless as the Snowden damage is already done. Reminding the American people that all their phone calls are recorded for future reference is just the price Obama has to pay for recording all our phone calls for future reference. It’s not as if that sort of thing prevented the Boston Marathon bombing, or even led to the perpetrators. Obama has fully failed in his duty to uphold the constitution. On the plus side for Obama, the military industrial complex isn’t about to remove him from office.
On one hand, Putin is in charge of Russia, and Obama is not. It appears that Obama is telling Putin what to do, and getting all bad about it, and Putin, as the leader of his country, isn’t bowing to Obama. So, in that sense, Putin is enjoying rubbing Obama’s nose in it.
OTOH, as the leader of a developing nation, just, more or less, regaining it’s footing, Putin needs an ally, and any time he feels that Obama is being a prick, Putin must sort of wince-he has to put his foot down and tell his colleague that he isn’t his bitch, and will do any effing thing he wants to in his own country, and to butt out. Not a thing an ally would really feel comfortable doing, so, in that sense, Putin isn’t digging it, baby.
I don’t think Russia can extradite anyone if they risk the death penalty. Protocol 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights does not allow them.
Putin just handed Obama another piece of humble pie-Snowden gets 1 year in Russia!
Obama was VERY upset…wonder what this might lead to?
Yeah, because the Russian government is so deeply concerned about human rights. :rolleyes:
I don’t think Russia has signed the bits of the Convention that forbid the death penalty.
In anycase, Putin’s foreign policy has been reflexively anti-American for the last decade. I don’t think anyone, Obama included, is particularly surprised that they won’t extradite Snowden.
Thanks. Link.
What I have read about this is not specific to Obama but generalized to the US government. It isn’t Obama that is being h"humiliated" as much as it is the United States and the US govt. so I am not sure I understand the OP.
“Obama” is often used as a shorthand for the entire US government, since he leads it. He’s also sometimes used as a shorthand for the his administration, the whole Executive branch, and even the entire Democratic Party.
The problem is only when some people forget that they are using shorthand (or, worse, didn’t know to begin with).
I’d say yes.
I don’t hate Obama, and I don’t think he cries about this. But being thin-skinned, he’s probably pissed.
No, Obama isn’t doing fine. He tried an ingratiating maneuver of the sort that really works only with people who fall for his charm, and Putin isn’t one of them. Putin smacked him on the nose like an overly affectionate puppy dog.
Remember when Obama was overheard telling Putin he’d have more flexibility after the election? Obama thought by showing trust he’ll get trust. In reality, he made himself Putin’s bitch right then. And Putin IS enjoying it. If I were Putin, I sure as hell would be.
NotDeadYet is right: global politics AIN’T like 5th grade. Charm is not enough. That’s exactly why Obama’s moves aren’t working. JFK got a much, much tougher lesson in that from Khrushchev.
I think we (USA) need to make this snowden affair a non-issue. Let Russia have him, he can be their problem. In the meantime we shift gears, focus on damage control, freeze ties with russia and move on. snowden gets to live the rest of his life barred from the very country he claims to be “helping”. We’ll get him eventually, there will always be someone looking for him, they will never tire.