Snowden: Kremlin Tool for Reducing U.S. Web Dominance (Yezhednevniy
Zhurnal, Russia)
"It is worth recalling that when Russia's latest initiative to alter
the global regulation of the Internet was presented to the International
Telecommunication Union summit in December (the first time the idea of Internet
sovereignty was properly aired), it was supported by 89 states, despite being
cut down by Western nations. It is interesting, following Snowden's revelations,
how many more states support such proposals."
President Obama: His talk of NSA reform and suggestion that Edward Snowden is not the cause of canceling his September meeting with Vladimr Putin has met widespread criticism.
The
fact that journalist-dodging Edward Snowden has been granted temporary asylum
in Russia, after leaving the Sheremetyevo transit zone (according to the
official version of the story), evidently means he has nothing more to tell the
world. It could hardly have been a coincidence that The Guardian simultaneously published
its latest article based on information from Snowden. This time it was the
question of the XKeyscore program, which allows NSA employees to remotely monitor
almost everything Internet users do online without a court order. Perhaps this was
the last of Snowden's revelations. The Kremlin, having used Snowden to full propaganda
effect for 39 days, could now calmly announce his arrival on Russian soil in
exchange for a promise “not to further harm” the United States. Granting that this
is a rather minor deception, from an official point of view, everything looks
fairly tidy.
Given
that Snowden has so meticulously avoided contact with journalists, many assumed
that all this time he was under FSB surveillance, which limited his activities.
The circumstances of his meeting with human rights activists at Sheremetyevo
two weeks ago appear to bare this out. They were brought in and taken away by
anonymous people as if this wasn't Moscow in 2013, but the mountains of
Chechnya in the very thick of the Second
Chechen War, with Snowden not a dissident but a field commander.
Judging
by a statement
on the WikiLeaks Web site, Snowden left the airport via a "secret"
route - under the pretext of ensuring his safety, although there are no
publicly known instances of the American intelligence services carrying out
abductions or liquidations on Russian soil. Obviously, keeping Snowden hidden
away will add weight to the arguments of those who believe that the American is
now, and will continue to be, under the strict control of the Russian special
services. It is strange, all things considered, that this doesn't seem to concern
Russian authorities.
That
said, there are grounds for believing that the Kremlin is counting on Snowden for
more gains in its geopolitical game to alter regulation of the Internet, which is
understood to mean the struggle to reduce U.S. influence over the global
network. The day the American was granted asylum in Russia, Kommersant reported that Vladimir Putin
signed off on the Principles
of State Policy of the Russian Federation in the Field of International
Information Security Up to 2020. Among the threats listed in the
document is “interference in the internal affairs of states." To justify the
appearance of this item in the document, no better illustration can be found
than the material provided by Snowden.
Apart
from this, Snowden's disclosures are being put to the utmost use on the home
front to attack the positions of global services in Runet [Russian
cyberspace]. That is precisely what Senator Ruslan Gattarov's initiative for
protecting the personal data of Russians from interception by foreign
intelligence services is all about, along with proposals on digital sovereignty
by Duma Vice Speaker Sergei Zheleznyaka. New legislation is already being promised
for autumn. The pressure on Google and Facebook has already begun - the
Prosecutor General's Office has been asked to examine whether the companies are
in violation of our laws.
These
initiatives have been around for a while, as have doubts about the
independence of Snowden's decision-making since he landed in Moscow. It doesn't
appear, however, that this is unduly jangling anyone's nerves: Snowden's stay
in Russia has raised no questions from the team at WikiLeaks, Snowden's closest
allies, or the many activists who believe that in order to battle the scourge
of the U.S. global intelligence surveillance, compromises had to be made with a
state, the dubious Internet initiatives of which have, up to now, threatened
only its own citizens. Perhaps this also explains the behavior of the Kremlin -
all interested parties are very rigidly divided into supporters and opponents of
Snowden, and the statements by Snowden attorney Anatoly Kucheren have done nothing to change that.
At
the same time, it's worth recalling that Russia's latest initiative to alter the global regulation of the Internet, when presented to the International
Telecommunication Union summit in December (the first time the idea of Internet
sovereignty was properly aired), it was supported by 89 states, despite being
cut down by Western nations. It is interesting, following Snowden's revelations,
how many more states support such proposals. Russia has already found its first
convert. Last week, Brazil Communications Minister Paulo Bernardo, commenting
on the scandal surround U.S. cyber-espionage, stated that local Internet
service providers could in future be required to store data on servers within
the country, ensuring they are available in case “it is required by Brazilian justice.”
The minister said that local control over data was a "matter of national
sovereignty."
