"People who hold a salary for everyone, don't let them freeze to death in the wind and snow", now Snowden This "salary bearer" from the other side of the ocean has successfully obtained asylum in Russia, which is precisely "fair and comfortable". best performance.
As we all know, with the great success of the referendum held by Russia in eastern Ukraine a few days ago, the situation of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has quietly entered a new stage. Russia and the Western countries behind Ukraine have not only begun to increase their efforts, throwing arms and supplies on the battlefield, but even directly moved nuclear deterrence to confront each other. This has also made the political, military and economic frictions between the two sides more sensitive.
But what's interesting is that at such a sensitive moment, Putin the Great took the time to sign a document. alone is a former U.S. defense contractor employee, Edward Snowden conferred Russian citizenship. However, this seemingly ordinary nationality incident was like an invisible bomb, which immediately blew up the American political and public opinion circles. Even many Western politicians have begun to openly appeal internationally, hoping that Russia can stop covering up Snowden and let him return to the United States for a just trial. So the question is:
What is Snowden so sacred, and why does the US government hate him so much?
In the face of the ubiquitous intelligence tentacles of the United States, how did Snowden successfully escape to Russia and obtain asylum?
Most importantly, what is the purpose behind Putin's intention to grant Snowden Russian citizenship?
The sin prism that strips away privacy
If we want to know who Snowden is, then we have to start with a vicious privacy invasion in the United States. Back in 2007, with the development of the global Internet, the United States has realized that the Internet has become an effective tool to achieve US political goals and shape US global leadership in more and more international events.
So at the behest of the then US President Bush Jr. , NSA and FBI secretly launched a top-secret electronic surveillance project called "US-984XN", codenamed "Prism Project" ". So how exactly does this plan work? The answer is to steal users' data privacy.
It is understood that the Prism project at that time had a very wide range of monitoring. It authorized the National Security Agency and the FBI to directly invade Microsoft , Yahoo, Google , Facebook , Apple , PalTalk, AOL, Data retrieval is performed by the back-end servers of nine multinational network giants such as Skype and YouTube. thus obtains ten categories of data including emails, video and voice chats, videos, photos, text chats, file transfers, login notifications, and social network details.
also asked Verizon, the largest phone company in the United States, to provide millions of private phone records, including the duration of individual calls, where they were called, and the phone numbers of both parties. This level of surveillance undoubtedly strips all network and phone users for inspection, and there is no privacy at all!
is such an evil and huge project that has been running smoothly for six years in secret. Until March 2013, a cybersecurity expert named Edward Snowden officially became an employee of a US defense contractor and began to come into contact with a series of secret intelligence surveillance projects including the "Prism Project" .
Edward Snowden
The whistleblower who challenged hegemony
may be out of a sense of justice, or he may not be accustomed to what the US government is doing. In short, Snowden, who was only 29 years old at the time, decided to challenge the biggest hegemon in the online world after hesitating for a long time, so the counterattack began!
In June 2013, Snowden quietly contacted two world-renowned newspapers and media, the British " Guardian " and the American " Washington Post ". Prepare to snatch up secretly acquired U.S. secret intelligence surveillance program fundsmaterials, provided to them and made available to the world. So on June 5, the British "Guardian" took the lead in throwing the first public opinion bomb, pointing out that there was a secret surveillance project code-named " prism " within the US government. A day later, the US "Washington Post" directly disclosed the technology giants involved in the "Prism Project" and the specific monitoring details.
And once the content was exposed, the global public opinion orientation followed in an uproar, and various criticisms were heard endlessly. Even the tech giants in the U.S. at the time vehemently denied providing secret services to the government. However, in the face of detailed evidence, the sophistry of the companies is too weak. For a time, the United States fell into an unprecedented network trust crisis , and the stock prices of major technology companies plummeted. Even under pressure, Obama, who was inspecting the American West at the time, was forced to make a public speech acknowledging the existence of the project.
must know that just a month before this happened, this US president who publicly bowed his head and admitted his fault was still publicly slandering us and "invading" the systems of the US government and military computers. As a result, Snowden's revelations are like a stroke of genius, directly slapping the US government heavily, making the world's eyes focus on the biggest voyeur and secret thief in the online world.
And facing a reckless whistleblower like Snowden, the United States certainly doesn't want to make it easier. So on June 21, 2013, just half a month after the Prism incident was exposed, the U.S. Department of Justice immediately brought multiple charges against Snowden, and the State Department subsequently revoked his passport. Immediately afterwards, the United States issued a global arrest warrant for Snowden on charges of espionage, theft and unauthorized disclosure of national defense and intelligence information, and prepared to arrest Snowden with great fanfare!
However, what is interesting is that the global wanted for such a big fight did not stop Snowden's escape. Only two days after the arrest warrant was issued, Snowden successfully set foot on Russian soil and stayed there for ten years! So how exactly did Snowden escape the United States? This has to boast about Snowden's political sensitivity!
Difficult escape and global support
It turns out that Snowden had predicted the wrath of the US government long before he broke the news, so in order to avoid arrest, he left the US and took refuge in Hong Kong before leaking the documents. At that time, due to the restrictions of Hong Kong law, the United States could not lock Snowden's trace at the first time, which gave Snowden another chance.
On June 23, 2013, Snowden successfully escaped from Hong Kong and flew all the way to Russia. However, Snowden was also confined to the airport terminal for more than a month because his passport had been revoked. It was also during this period that Snowden successfully obtained political asylum in Russia and stayed in Russia for nearly a decade.
Some friends may say, since there are so many European brothers in the United States, didn't they unite with them to put pressure on Russia? In fact, in other cases, joint pressure can be very useful. For example, Assange, the representative of the previous US leaks, was unable to move an inch under the joint pressure of Western countries. But the problem is that the exposure of the Prism Gate incident at that time actually aroused the anger of many younger brothers towards the United States.
Because at that time, the United States' information monitoring did not distinguish between so-called enemies and allies, and even benefited from intelligence advantages, the United States monitored so-called allies more closely. For example, Germany, which was hailed by Obama as the most staunch ally at the time, had far more surveillance than any other European country, according to Snowden’s revelations. Not even the German chancellor's cell phone was spared.
and France, which Obama calls his greatest ally, Project Prism has stolen the phone records of tens of millions of people in a few months, including many important business and political figures! In addition, Japan and South Korea, , Brazil, , and India are all top priorities in the US surveillance program. The exposure of these materials undoubtedly triggered a crisis of confidence between the United States and its allies.
So at that time, except for the hard-core guy in the United Kingdom, who clearly prohibited Snowden from carrying any flights, the other sidekicks had no support or solidarity in the matter of seeking Snowden.What this big brother means. Even at that time, in order to condemn and protest against the US surveillance plan, some European politicians proposed to award Snowden the " Nobel Peace Prize ", which really disgusted the US government!
From this, it can be judged that the reason why Snowden was able to escape the pursuit of the United States, in addition to the asylum of Russia, the justice of his own behavior is also an indispensable factor! However, with the subsequent decrease in the popularity of the Prism Gate incident, Snowden gradually fell silent. So now, at a critical moment of sensitization of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Putin suddenly brought up the old story and gave Snowden Russian citizenship with great fanfare. What is the purpose behind it?
Putin's move to attack the old beauty
In fact, if we return to the Russian perspective, giving Snowden Russian citizenship at this critical moment is undoubtedly the highest strategic consideration!
is the first, from the point of view of international public opinion. As we all know, with the recent public investment of the four eastern Ukrainian states into Russia, Western countries have been criticizing and condemning Russia in international public opinion. Even the United States directly moved out of international law to try to prove the illegitimacy of Russia's referendum. Under such circumstances, Putin brought the Prism Gate incident back to the public eye, which is undoubtedly a powerful counterattack against the double-standard behavior of the United States in terms of public opinion!
After all, whether the current referendum is legal or not, at least it is what the local people want. But the Prism Gate incident not only seriously violated the so-called international law, but also directly ignored the privacy rights of citizens and even other sovereign countries. The egregious behavior of private voyeurism is enough to cause global outrage. This is undoubtedly the most powerful blow to the self-proclaimed image of freedom in the United States.
And now Russia has publicly announced that it will take in this warrior who dared to expose the evil deeds of the United States, which is undoubtedly the strongest support for freedom of speech and international law. If Snowden exposed the Prism plan in the name of justice before, it was a slap in the face of America's image of freedom. Now Russia grants Snowden Russian citizenship in the name of justice, which is to give the right side of America's image of freedom. There was another slap in the face.
Second, in terms of Western relations. As we all know, the current Russia-Ukraine conflict seems to be a contradiction between Ukraine and Russia, but in fact the real cause is the backfire of the United States. As a result, when the war really broke out, the European countries became the big foes caught between the United States and Russia, and were forced to fall into a situation of starvation and cold. This has undoubtedly aroused European countries' dissatisfaction with the United States.
And now Putin has brought up the previous Prism Gate incident for discussion, which is naturally adding fuel to the fire. After all, in the surveillance program at the time, Europe, which has always respected the right to privacy, did not receive even the slightest respect from the United States. This shows that in the eyes of the U.S. government, any alliance relationship is actually not worth mentioning in the face of national interests in international politics. It was like that then and it is still like that now, so the resumption of Putin's past now will undoubtedly add another fire to the crisis of confidence between the United States and Europe.
Third, in terms of intelligence acquisition. Many people know that Snowden is a leaker, but what many people don't know is that he is also a top cybersecurity expert. In fact, he worked on the NSA's cyberwarfare program as Dell's chief technologist before becoming an employee of a U.S. defense contractor.
Fourth, it can be said that he is very familiar with the technology and forms of US network intrusion. Now, in the context of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the online contest between the United States and Russia is almost on the table. At this time, winning Snowden, a former opponent, is undoubtedly an effective help for Russia.
and it is reported that Snowden not only has top-secret information about Prism, but also similar star wind , ascending, running bull, oak star, skynet, arch and many other information about American network projects content. And under the current situation, once these materials are really obtained by Russia, they will undoubtedly hold seven inches of the United States. Once exposed, it will be enough to make the United States fall into a terrible crisis of public opinion again.
Therefore, from these points alone, at such a sensitive moment, the benefits of Russia granting Snowden citizenship are extremely huge. is not even an exaggeration to say that this is a skill that cannot be ignored in the contest between the United States and Russia.
The best ending of the brave
Of course, the one who benefited the most from this incident is undoubtedly Snowden. As the whistleblower of America's privacy invasion crisis, he has struggled every step of the way since he fled in 2013. Countless American politicians are trying to bring him back to the United States for trial, and even the NSA official William Binney once said bluntly, "If Snowden is extradited to the United States, what awaits him will be torture, and then Handed over and continued to be imprisoned, tried, tortured, and even executed." Such a situation was undoubtedly a huge psychological pressure for Snowden.
Now, the naturalization document specially signed by Putin means that it can be protected by Russian law and intelligence agencies. Since then, the US government has never dared to attack it easily. This may be the best ending for a fighter who dares to challenge hegemony for freedom! In the future, Snowden only needs to continue to live well, then the freedom and justice that the United States prides itself on will be a shameful joke. Perhaps this is what Putin values most!
