TRANSCRIPT: [Putin excerpt re: Snowden] Answers to journalists’ to journalists’ questions after watching Central and Easter Military District training exercises at Tsugol test ground

(Kremlin.ru – July 17, 2013) 

[excerpt re: Snowden]

QUESTION: Mr President, I want to ask about [Edward] Snowden. What happened with [Bolivian President Evo] Morales showed that the White House will stop short of nothing in this case. Aren’t you worried that it might jeopardise the upcoming Russian-American summit? Also, it seems that the biggest question now is how you will distinguish between Snowden’s anti-American activities and his human rights activities.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: Let’s not go into all the details here. We warned Mr Snowden that any action on his part that would damage Russian-American relations is unacceptable for us.

As for the heart of the matter, I have already given my view. Human rights activity in general usually involves some kind of cost to those carrying it out, but if you’re working under United States aegis or with their financial, information and political support it can be a fairly comfortable activity to be involved in.

Of course, if you start criticising the United States itself, things become a lot more complicated, as the case with the Bolivian President’s plane showed. As I understand it, Mr Snowden never made it his aim to sit forever here in Russia, and he has already stated as much himself.

He is a young man. To tell the truth, I don’t really understand how he arrived at his decision and how he plans to build his life from here. But it is his life and his choice. We have our national tasks however, including building our relations with the United States.

We cannot and will not behave as many other countries have done. Russia has an independent foreign policy and will continue to follow it. I hope that our partners will understand this and respond calmly and with comprehension. I think that relations between countries are far more important than squabbles over intelligence services’ activities.