Russian Foreign Minister Tells US To Behave 'Like Grown-Ups'

[Purveyor]

Source: Telegraph UK

Sergei Lavrov chided the US administration two days after President Barack Obama scrapped a summit with Mr Putin when Russia granted asylum to Edward Snowden, the fugitive US spy.

"We need to work as grown-ups," he told a press conference in Washington alongside John Kerry, the US Secretary of State. "This is what we do. And we hope that this will be reciprocal".

Mr Obama reacted furiously this week to Russia's approval of temporary asylum for Mr Snowden, a National Security Agency contractor who gave secret documents to the media.

Accusing Moscow of a "slip back into Cold War thinking", the president pulled out of a planned bilateral meeting with Mr Putin in Moscow before the G20 summit in St Petersburg next month.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/10234189/Russian-foreign-minister-tells-US-to-behave-like-grown-ups.html

[Andy823]

1. I am pretty sure

If things were reversed and the U.S. had taken in someone who had divulged Russia's surveillance programs they would be mad as hell, and a lot more "furious" than president Obama has been.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

2. You have heard of Russians defecting to the US, right?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Soviet_and_Eastern_Bloc_defectors

[Andy823]

3. Of course I have

But how many of them download all the information that Greenwald and Stowden claim they have from a top level surveillance program?

And of course there is the question as to why anyone would defect to Russia and claim that they are much better at protecting the rights of their citizens.

[another_liberal]

4. Russia has for decades . . .

Did you know that Russia has for decades been trying to get the United States to sign a reciprocal extradition treaty? We have consistently refused to do so, out of fear, some say, that we would have to give up a number of Russians wanted for crimes committed in that country.

This is not at all one-sided.

[Andy823]

8. Didn't say it was one sided

I simply am pointing out that if things were reversed, I am pretty sure Russia would be super pissed if all of their surveillance practices were being made public, and the guy who had all that information was in the U.S.! Wouldn't you agree?

[Lugal Zaggesi]

9. Why do you think Russia is sifting every phone call,

email, web search and blog comment of their citizens ?
Do you think Russia is exactly as technologically advanced as the USA?

Do you think Russians would be as angry as Americans are to learn their Government is spying on them quite comprehensively?

[John2]

6. I don't think any

claim was made about them being better or anyoneelse either. I think the embarrassment is the other way around, if you are going around, preaching that you are better than everyoneelse. I think that is why the President and those in the Government are so mad. Snowden ratted on them. I think the Russians and everybodyelse are getting their kicks out of it. Civil Rights abuses are being carried out in the United States everyday. I experience it every day because of my skin color or how much money I have. You have a privileged class in this country. We are still fighting racism. And some of the biggest racists hide behind the law and write them.

[otohara]

5. As They Arrest LGBT Citizens

For being born...

Fuck this guy!

[uhnope]

7. yes and FREE PUSSY RIOT

[Xolodno]

10. Dear God NO!!! That would violate the Geneva Convention!!!

Putin did the world a favor by stopping them and their awful music that caused peoples ears to bleed! If I was thrown into a 3x3 unlit cell and had a choice between Barney and Pussy Riot music on an endless loop....I would choose Barney.

[awoke_in_2003]

14. Regardless their music...

they were arrested basically for blasphemy. That is horseshit.

[Posteritatis]

21. Yay, let's cheer show trials and excessive imprisonment over musical taste! (nt)

[Xolodno]

22. Geez...no one can take a joke these days.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

23. Human rights abuses are hilarious.

Got any other jokes?

[Xolodno]

24. Too Soon???

[Xolodno]

11. Bottom line is....The US goverment has been able to push its wieght around for so long since...

...the fall of the Iron Curtain, it got used to it. Now, Russia is starting to re-establish itself and thumb its nose at the US...and of course, crying foul. Had the situation been reversed...the US would have offered a lot more than one year temporary asylum.

[geek tragedy]

12. I guess he's calling for Obama to put GLBTQ people

in prison and arrest his political opponents on trumped up charges, because that's what mature governments do.

[ronnie624]

16. I wonder if the US government is urging the Russian government

to wage aggressive wars in pursuit of global hegemony and maintenance of empire, because, you know, it's what 'mature' governments do.

[geek tragedy]

17. Nah, Russia just exercises regional hegemony and the occasional massacre

of Chechens.

[ronnie624]

18. In other words,

there's more than enough hypocrisy to go around, so singling out the Russians' doesn't mean much on this issue.

[geek tragedy]

19. No government is perfect, some are more imperfect than others. nt

[NeoConsSuck]

20. And we massacred Iraqis

[toby jo]

13. Putin's a global dick. But he outscored Obama on this one. O should have kept his cool.

Maybe if he hadn't given over so much of his soul to the parties interested in watching the American psyche, he'd have a little more cool to deal with, as well as no Snowden affair.

[Hydra]

15. Word

The President should have stayed on the sidelines and let the Spooks like Clapper make fools of themselves.

Instead, he threw in with them and is outside his "safe" zone.