• katy ✨@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    10 months ago

    i mean “Edward Snowden gets Russian passport after swearing oath of allegiance. Whistleblower is ‘happy and thankful to the Russian Federation’ for his citizenship, lawyer says”

    • Zworf@beehaw.org
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      10 months ago

      I know… But the point is, he’s stuck there.

      He had 2 choices:

      • Play ball and swear his oath and suck up a little to the godfather and live happily ever after
      • Kick up a stink against Putin and find himself falling out of a closed window (or, best case, being deported and spending his days in a max security prison).

      It’s not really like “free will” applies here :)

      Whatever the lawyer said is just the minimum required decorum IMO. Just politics. The oath is probably simply required to get the passport.

      Putin got to get one-over on the US and Snowden got to stay out of prison (well, in reality a really huge prison but still…). It’s a marriage of convenience.