Snowden's Russian asylum

It is just a bit ironic that Russia's President Vladimir Putin is lauding Snowden as "an advocate for human rights and a crusader for personal liberties." As most know, Snowden has applied for asylum in numerous countries around the world, but at this point seems close to leaving the Russian transit center to establish himself in that country, at least temporarily.

The New York Times reports that Putin doesn't expect Russia's granting asylum to Snowden to harm U.S.-Russia relations, and characterized Snowden almost as a hero, though he has put a caveat on the offer of asylum - Snowden must not continue to harm U.S. interests.

Given the historically...contentious-to-wary relations between the U.S. and Russia, this is an interesting mixed message to send the States - "yes, we'll grant asylum to your runaway and we applaud his exposure of NSA programs, but he needs to stop publicizing additional information that could further harm the U.S." All of this comes alongside Senator Graham calling for a U.S. boycott of the 2014 Solchi Olympics if Russia goes through with granting Snowden asylum, The Hill reports.

Speaker John Boehner basically classified Graham's statement as absurd, but it is interesting to see a statement that seems so anachronistically cold era. Putin may just want a monopoly on Snowden's information for himself, and as such does not want anyone else in the world to have it, or Putin may genuinely be invested in preserving and developing the U.S.-Russia relationship, or perhaps it's a bit of both - but it seems almost certain that he has an ulterior motive. It will be interesting to see what influence, if any, Snowden's flight continues to have in foreign policy and on privacy and surveillance laws back at home.