For Ed Snowden, the most famous exposer of the secrets of American worldwide surveillance, the hope of returning home to his native America dawned. President Trump said he would consider his case and possibly give him his presidential pardon. There is a tradition in America: near the end of his term in office, the president pardons many convicted or under investigation people. Thus, President Obama pardoned Manning - the whistleblower who leaked the State Department documents in WikiLeaks to Julian Assange - and he was released. Trump is now preparing a series of his final pardons. Perhaps he will also have mercy on his former employees, who, not by washing, have been condemned or judged by his political opponents, the Democrats.
Snowden's pardon will be greeted with enthusiasm by many Americans and may have a positive effect on the president's chances of getting re-elected. True, before his victory in 2016, Trump called Snowden a traitor, whom it would not be a pity to shoot, but over the years the president realized that his own special services had become too powerful, too independent, too omniscient, and most importantly, unaccountable and on his own mind. Snowden did a lot to show America and the world that the American special services, and above all the NSA, in which he served, are spying on us all.
Recall that Snowden passed on this important piece of information to The Guardian and other freelance journalists while in Hong Kong. After that, he had to flee: the Hong Kong authorities said they could not refuse the US demanding his extradition, and gave Snowden 24 hours to escape. China didn’t want to take it - it was such a hot potato that it’s hard to keep it without getting burnt.
Snowden decided to fly to Latin America via Moscow, but when he flew to Sheremetyevo, it turned out that the United States had canceled his American passport, and Cuba refused to give him transit on the way to Venezuela.
He was stuck for a long time in the Sheremetyev transit zone, and finally President Putin agreed to give him shelter. It was a very brave step by the Russian president to disregard the demands of his American partner and accept a fugitive dissident. And this decision was worth a lot: Obama canceled his visit to Moscow, canceled negotiations in St. Petersburg, and relations between Russia and the United States sharply deteriorated and since then only continued to deteriorate.
Russia has shown itself as the only country in the world capable of saying no to the United States - remember that this was before the Kiev Maidan, before the scandals related to the Olympics, before the gay polemics, before the war in Syria and, of course, before the accusations of interference in American domestic politics.
Since then, Snowden has lived in Moscow and, by and large, fulfills the condition set by President Putin: to stop his anti-American activities. Moscow agreed to save his life and freedom, but did not want to become a base for his fight against the American special services. He occasionally speaks on the Internet at international conferences, has published a book, confines himself to general considerations of how important it is to keep our privacy private.
With the information that Snowden took to the NSA (huge amount!), The following story happened. An American patriot, Ed did not want to give it to Russia or China (and there were names of all American spies in the world). Of course, it's a pity that he didn't want to give this gift to Moscow! He gave this invaluable burden to the independent journalist Greenwald, who founded the special agency The Intercept to publish Snowden's materials, but, alas, published almost nothing. The owner of The Intercept was the oligarch, the owner of EBay, and his plans did not include undermining his native American special services. So by and large Snowden did not do much damage to American interests and did not bring much benefit to Moscow.
However, he paved the way for other American and European dissidents, who began to seriously consider the possibility of obtaining asylum in Russia, and she became the very Don from whom there is no extradition. So, Sarah Harrison moved to Moscow, who helped Snowden escape from Hong Kong.
As the years passed, Snowden, although accustomed to Moscow, remained alone. According to him, he has no Russian friends or even good acquaintances. He has long wanted to leave for more familiar places, but as long as the sword of the American special services hangs over him, no one will take it except fearless Moscow. If Trump pardons him, he will probably take advantage of this and return to his homeland, where thousands of fans will welcome him. But he will certainly remember the fate of Manning, who was pardoned by Obama, but since then has already been returned to prison twice on the same case. American justice knows such moves that Themis never dreamed of.
“There is no need to pardon him, he did not commit a crime,” said his lawyer Anatoly Kucherena. "You just need to drop all charges against him."
One way or another, the return of Snowden to his homeland will be an excellent humanitarian step for President Trump, and it is unlikely that the American intelligence services will desperately fight him, except for their vindictiveness.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.