Russia extends Snowden residency by three years

I suppose it&#x27;s not unrelated to the russian embargo on European, Canadian, Australian, Norwegian and American food that was announced this morning and has yet to reach the US online news [0]. English translation [1].<p>[0] haven&#x27;t seen anything yet on nytimes or wp.<p>[1] <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=&amp;sl=fr&amp;tl=en&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lemonde.fr%2Feurope%2Farticle%2F2014%2F08%2F07%2Fla-russie-decrete-un-embargo-total-sur-les-produits-alimentaires-europeens-et-americains_4468074_3214.html&amp;sandbox=1" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;translate.google.com&#x2F;translate?hl=&amp;sl=fr&amp;tl=en&amp;u=http...</a>

This had to happen. With all the sanctions that the US and EU is slapping on Russia they had to do this. Independent of of the motives, I think this is good for Snowden. The enemy of enemy is a friend.

Good timing for Snowden - given that Russia is keen to retaliate for the sanctions right now they&#x27;re probably pleased to piss the US off with this.

Why are we discussing Snowden&#x27;s ability to travel? I mean, does he need to travel? Is that essential to him continuing what he is doing?

I lol&#x27;ed at this one:<p><pre><code> &quot;Accordingly, Edward Snowden was given a three-year residence permit,&quot; which will allow him to move about freely and travel abroad, Mr Kucherena said. </code></pre> He can &quot;travel abroad&quot;. Where exactly?<p>The Crimea is probably the safest place he could travel to at present!

The more I look at this, the more I am becoming convinced that Ukraine was a retaliation for Snowden getting a shelter in Russia.<p>If you rewind back, the US reaction to Snowden staying in Russia was remarkably <i>disproportionately</i> mild. For an incident that made an unprecedented damage to the US image, it was very un-US like to just let it go. So tearing Ukraine away from Russia and pissing all over Russian political image fits right in. These two events just cannot not be connected.

Great, now he has more time to sit on his ass and say nothing about the terribly oppressive Internet laws that Russian government enacts over its citizens. So brave.