Stephens: The Age of American Impotence - WSJ.com
At this writing, Edward J. Snowden, the fugitive National Security
Agency contractor indicted on espionage charges, is in Moscow, where
Vladimir Putin's spokesman insists his government is powerless to detain
him. "We have nothing to do with this story," says Dmitri Peskov. "I
don't approve or disapprove plane tickets."
Funny how Mr. Putin always seems to
discover his inner civil libertarian when it's an opportunity to
humiliate the United States. When the Russian government wants someone
off Russian soil, it either removes him from it or puts him under it.
Just ask investor Bill Browder, who was declared persona non grata when
he tried to land in Moscow in November 2005. Or think of Mr. Browder's
lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, murdered by Russian prison officials four
years later.
Mr. Snowden arrived in Moscow from Hong Kong, where local officials
refused a U.S. arrest request, supposedly on grounds it "did not fully
comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law." That's funny,
too, since Mr. Snowden had been staying in a Chinese government safe
house before Beijing gave the order to ignore the U.S. request and let
him go.
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