Fugitive U.S. intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden filed Tuesday an official request for temporary asylum in Russia, creating a dilemma for the country: to refuse his request against humanitarianism or irritate its U.S. partner by granting him asylum.
But local experts said Russia is only too anxious to get the former U.S. National Security Agency contractor, who has marooned in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport for weeks, out of its territory as the United States wants to remove him.
RULE-BREAKERS NOT WELCOMED
After a three-week long "catch me if you can" drama, the meeting called by Snowden last Friday in his hideout and the latest asylum request made the saga even harder to predict.
According to his legal adviser Anatoly Kucherena, Snowden has yet made up his mind to go for Latin America after receiving temporary asylum in Russia.
President Vladimir Putin made it clear that Moscow is not going to harm its relations with Washington, and that Snowden could only continue with his human rights activities "without our involvement."
Local experts said the Kremlin adopted a rather coolish attitude toward Snowden, trying not to harm its relationship with Washington as well as its own interests.
Calling Snowden "a transit passenger" who had arrived in Russia without invitation, Putin said the U.S. authorities scared off all other countries and blocked the 29-year-old whistleblower on Russian soil.
Indeed, Snowden would not likely harm U.S.-Russia relations any seriously, local experts said. On the opposite, the two countries may have found a common enemy which usually moves them closer.
"Both Moscow and Washington understand that Snowden is not a person as grand so to affect bilateral relations. Both Putin and (his U.S. counterpart Barack) Obama are irritated with Snowden's existence, though for different reasons. So they both look for (a) mutually acceptable way to remove that eyewinker," Alexei Malashenko from Moscow's Carnegie Endowment told Xinhua.
OPPOSITE SIGNALS FROM THE TOP
The country's leaders themselves are confused with the situation, local experts said. While Putin gave his cold shoulder, heads of both chambers of the legislative power, State Duma and Federal Council, suggested that Snowden should be given asylum unconditionally on the humanitarian ground.
"No one in Russia fully understands what's going on, and the top officials are not (an) exception," Malashenko said.
Facing the "Snowden dilemma," Putin has to balance possible advantages of having the U.S. secret-keeper in hands with possible consequences of the move.
"So Putin allows the highest officials next to him in the state hierarchy to speak out while not exposing himself," Malashenko said.
Elena Yatsenko, head of the Eurasia Heritage Foundation's Board of Directors, said it is important for Putin to use that situation to reconfirm Moscow's principal position -- if someone is unhappy with his country's political regime, no outside involvement would be welcomed.
"By refusing Snowden's right to continue his subversive activity from the Russian territory, Putin reiterates that all domestic disputes must be settled by the fellow citizens only, as Moscow has been insisting in the recent years," she said.
