[rfctr]

Snowden will halt the revelations abruptly. He would be a fool to break the agreement with Putin.

Putin is a man of his word, and expects the same from Snowden.

Information may continue to leak, but not from Snowden. His part of the show is finished (and luckily for him, he's not even bruised!).

[grimtrigger]

My guess is that Putin would be happy to have Snowden break the agreement, as long as he doesn't go to the press and take credit for it. Putin's government has been working constantly to undermine America's foreign influence, and these leaks go a long way towards doing that.

[osmsiberiano]

> Putin's government has been working constantly to undermine America's foreign influence

Can you elaborate on that? Any concrete examples of how they were doing this?

From the same Putin's regime we hear the same about the US, although just guesses, no facts. I'm curious how the west sees that.

[grimtrigger]

I have no doubt its true for the US too. They're competing for influence in many parts of the globe.

Its not a rigorous example, but I think the front page of RT (the Russian - state backed media outlet) is a good example. Most of the US based stories are highly critical of the US government. It's also no coincidence that Julian Assange has his own show on RT.

I also believe Russia's backing of Assad is mostly an attempt to block Western influence in the middle east. But there's probably a number of reason and thats just one.

[mjolk]

>Information may continue to leak, but not from Snowden. His part of the show is finished (and luckily for him, he's not even bruised!).

In my opinion, being exiled from your home and living the rest of your life with the world superpower ready to kidnap you is relatively bruising.

[andreypopp]

> Putin is a man of his word

:-)

[mjolk]

Can you provide proof to otherwise? I'd imagine you've done proper research on the topic of Putin's honesty due to the flippant response.

[Mc_Big_G]

He's a politician.

[andreypopp]

Basically, he's a politician ;-)

[7s]

I'm always amazed how the public opinion of putin ranges from "evil dictator" to "clever politician".

[JamesArgo]

To become an evil dictator, it's often necessary to be a clever politician.

[7s]

I had trouble putting this in words. By "clever politician" I mean people seeing Putin on TV or something and saying, "Ah, thats very clever" or even "Pretty amusing how he dealt with/did x". Media coverage in Central Europe is always very critical towards Putin, and while their stories may be distorted in some respects, I still believe them about many civilian rights beeing violated under his influence.

[1qaz2wsx3edc]

Isn't it the same for every politician?

[rfctr]

Any reasons to believe otherwise?

The only thing I hold against him is his failure, as promised, to hang Georgian president by his balls. Eating necktie is a weak substitute.

[jbooth]

Being president of a large country pretty much guarantees you've had to lie and cheat at least a little bit to get there.

For one random example (not being a huge student of 21st century Russia), he promised Bush that he wasn't arming Saddam's troops. Turned out they were outfitted with a lot of Russian anti-tank and night vision gear when we got there.

[andreypopp]

> For one random example (not being a huge student of 21st century Russia), he promised Bush that he wasn't arming Saddam's troops. Turned out they were outfitted with a lot of Russian anti-tank and night vision gear when we got there.

That doesn't say anything about Russia arming Saddam's troops. I'm sure there are a lot of cases U.S. arming their "allies" and then these weapons in some way became available to terrorists...

I simply don't think it is possible to know and predict how and by whom weapons will be used.

[rfctr]

Proof, please? Soviet-designed doesn't mean Russian. Soviet designs are in manufacturing all over the world, including countries much closer to Iraq.

[jbooth]

http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/01/10/evidenc...

It's a he said, she said, of course.

[ivan_gammel]

That could be done via 3rd party like Ukraine without direct involvement or even awareness of Russian government.

[greenburger]

He's well known to fake publicity stunts, such as:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2045848/Vladimir-Put...

Remember, he comes from the KGB, eventually rising to be the FSB director (the KGB successor).

[andreypopp]

Reason? He's politician.