Excerpted from Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the

Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped, by Garry

Kasparov. Copyright 2016. Available from PublicAffairs, an imprint
of Perseus Books, LLC, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
It is human nature to want to put a face on our stories, whether or not it
really fits. Like a footballer making or missing a penalty in the final seconds of a
game, one individual often gets credit or blame when he is mostly just a diversion
from more important stories. One persons central role in a single incident ends up
looking more important than the serious issues, which have been building for a long
time, that the incident represents. That was the case of Edward Snowden, a traitor
and spy to some and a whistleblower and hero to others. I have no special
knowledge about his actions or his leaks, but I would surely feel differently about
him had he not taken refuge in Russia, where his asylum request tacitly endorsed
the dictatorial regime of his gracious host, Vladimir Putin.
My reaction is not only due to Snowdens first statement from Russia, while
he was still in legal limbo at Sheremetyevo airport, in which he included Putins
Russiaa police state and patron of despotism worldwideon his list of nations that
stand against human rights violations carried out by the powerful rather than the
powerless. Excuse me? Putins many political prisoners would disagree quite
strongly, as would the many opposition members who have had their emails hacked
and their phone calls recorded by the KGB in attempts to discredit them. And
Snowden could have been more respectful of the many injured and dead among
journalists and his fellow whistleblowers in Russia.
One note on Snowdens NSA revelations, however, speaking as someone who
grew up under the all-seeing eye of the KGB and who is fighting its modern rebirth
under Vladimir Putin: it is exasperating to hear blithe comparisons between the
NSA, and other Western spy or law enforcement organizations, and the vicious
internal security regimes of the USSR and East Germany. The NSA is to the Stasi
what a bad hotel is to a maximum security prison. It is not what a government does
with data that defines it; it is what it does to human beings.
Any encroachment on the personal freedoms and rights of individuals by a
government should be protested and debated, absolutely. The mechanisms to
protest such abuses must be exercised regularly or they will be lost. But citizens
behind the Iron Curtain were not terrified of the intelligence services because of
data collection. We lived in fear because we knew what would happen to us if we
gave any hint of dissent against the regime. And, as often as not, no data at all was
required to persecute, disappear, torture, and murder potential enemies. If a court
actually was involved, and evidence desired, it would simply fabricated. And no, to
take on the next argument I often hear, brutal totalitarianism does not begin with
surveillance by a liberal democratic state. It begins with terror, it begins with

violence, and it begins with the knowledge that your thoughts and words can end
your career or your life.
Snowdens acts and his appearance in Moscow had some impact in Russia,
but it should not be exaggerated. Ive heard claims that Putin learned of Snowdens
leaks, then passed his draconian new laws further restricting free speech as a way
of keeping up with the Joneses at the NSA; it should go without saying that such
claims are absurd. Dozens of those laws have been put into effect over Putins
fifteen-year reign, gradually vandalizing the Russian constitution beyond
recognition. Putin is always quick to exploit any opportunity to justify his
authoritarian ways, but in many cases it is Western leaders and press looking to
make excuses for Putin and to avoid calling him a dictator. This is a genetic strength
and weakness of the free world, the desire to be fair and balanced and to show
both sides of the story even when it means giving the benefit of the doubt to
someone who hasnt deserved it in over a decade. The Western press that never
hesitated to refer to Pinochet as a dictator, and with good reason, somehow always
finds more polite titles or euphemisms for Putin, the Castros, al-Assad, and even
Kim Jong-un.
As for the estimation of Snowden among the Russian opposition, you must
realize what his journey looked like in our eyes. The idea that an individual could
carry out this espionage mission and then flee to China and take refuge in Russia
without any involvement by the KGB is incredibly hard to believe. Combine these
logical suspicions with his asylum claim and the aforementioned false equivalency
between dictatorships and democracies and Snowden is hardly cut out to be a
sympathetic figure among those who respect the universal nature of human rights.