Snowden Debacle: U.S. Pres. Obama Cancels September Summit with Russia's Putin over Asylum Row
Pres. Obama hits back with a Boycott of Summit
The United States of America's decision not to attend a planned summit with Russia's President Vladimir Putin after former NSA agent and whistleblower Edward Snowden was granted asylum in Russia. During the process of obtaining asylum in Russia, he was represented by a wikileaks spokesperson.
Snowden had been holed up at a local Russian airport and was flying to Moscow from Hong Kong. According to the United States of America, he is a fugitive and has been charged with espionage for leaking intelligence information.
During the episode when Snowden was stuck in Moscow, several countries had offered him asylum but he was unable to leave Russia without proper paperwork. He was a U.S. citizen at the time. Several Latin American countries like Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia had offered asylum to the intelligence leaker. Australia and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd were not involved in the conflict.
Russia took the stand to harbour Snowden after accusing the United States of America of chasing away Snowden's asylum donors. In a statement to the United States of America and President Barrack Obama, President Vladimir Putin said that by getting rid of Snowden's asylum donors, the United States of America was handing Snowden as a 'Christmas gift' to Russia.
President Barrack Obama and the United States of America expressed 'disappointment' over the asylum with President Obama saying, 'Snowden is a fugitive who should be tried in a court of low, not staying in Moscow.'
The move to cancel the Russia - United States of America summit - was perceived a 'disappointment' by President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
Meanwhile, Snowden received a job offer from an agency known as the Russian Facebook. The position would enable him to programme for finding bugs and fixing the security of private accounts on the site, said vkontakte.
In another related story, a news channel accidentally criticized Vladimir Putin of Russia by running a footage about his evils and corruption in his government. It was run by a staff member who had opposing views against President Vladimir Putin about the journalist and critic Anna Politkovskaya. He was also quoted as saying in a report by the Sydney morning herald that corruption in Russia was at an all-time high.
After the news had drawn attention from all over Russia, the news clip was posted on YouTube.
The news channel's chief said that the person who played the news clip would be laid off.