09.08 In Forceful Push for Snowden, US Misread Russia Experts
WASHINGTON, August 8 (By Carl Schreck for RIA Novosti) Less than 24 hours after fugitive intelligence contractor Edward Snowden touched down in Moscow on a flight from Hong Kong six weeks ago, the US administration launched an aggressive public campaign to pressure Russia to expel the accused leaker to face espionage charges at home.
It was an approach that was doomed to fail, analysts in Washington and Moscow told RIA Novosti on Thursday, one that put the Kremlin on the defensive and allowed Snowden to assume an outsized role in bilateral ties.
It was almost as if the US administration didnt want Russia to give up Snowden, said Alexei Mukhin, head of the Center for Political Information, a Moscow-based think tank.
Russias decision to grant Snowden temporary asylum last week is a move the Obama administration should have seen coming from the moment he landed at Moscows Sheremetyevo Airport on June 23, said Steven Pifer, a former US ambassador to Ukraine.
The administration should have understood that theyre not going to get him back, Pifer told RIA Novosti. I question the wisdom of asking a guy to do something when a) I know he wont do it; and b) if the situation were reversed, and he asked something similar, you would not do it.
