MOSCOW ¨C Russian President Vladimir Putin is showing his gamesmanship on a global stage by giving his voters what they want with the asylum granted to ex-U.S. contractor Edward Snowden while leaving the White House flustered.
The decision is backed by almost twice as many Russians as those against it, and those who view Snowden¡¯s role as positive outnumber negative assessments by 3-to-1.
While the case risks derailing U.S.-Russian relations, it gives Putin a chance to rally support at home and deflect attention from his own human-rights record, said Gleb Pavlovsky, a former Kremlin adviser who heads the Effective Policy Foundation in Moscow. ¡°Domestically, he got what he can,¡± Pavlovsky said. ¡°His main propaganda message domestically will be that things are similar everywhere: The CIA and the FBI violate human rights, just like everybody else.¡±
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