Russia doesn’t snoop on its own, Ha, Ha, Ha

Could Russia, long resigned to tyrannical Tsars, palace intrigue, pogroms and a giant security state, be turning a new leaf ? The revolution of 1917 brought the Bolsheviks to power there, amidst hopes of great modernisation, liberty and change for common people everywhere. But those hopes melted like the last snowflakes in a Russian spring, as the Soviet state seized control of every aspect of people’s lives and strangled the voices of a people. Today, communism is gone, but the regime of Vladimir Putin is trying to cobble together another security state that attempts to restore the glories of the past Slavic empires. And the surveillance state is back with a vengeance.

Thus, it was incongruous when Edward Snowden, the American contractor who leaked vast amounts of data to prove that the US government was snooping on millions of its own citizens as well as on allies, finally took refuge in Putin’s tent. Since then, little was heard from him. But Snowden, that campaigner for personal freedom and privacy, is back: at a televised show with Putin, he appeared and asked the President whether Moscow snooped on its own people. Putin, suitably horrified, said, of course not. Coming from someone whose career began in the KGB and whose administration is full of old spooks, that was a real convincing stand.