It's not idiotic at all. There are many countries which don't have this sort of issue, eg Iceland (where many were expecting him to go a week ago). Julian Assange seemed quite happy with Sweden until he found himself at odds with the laws on sexual conduct there (and recall that it is to Sweden, rather than the US, that Britain wants to extradite him).
Russia doesn't have an 'imperfect track record' in this area. It has a pretty poor one, and I'm guessing you're not going to see a wave of libertarian idealists heading there any time soon for just this reason. It's not unreasonable to question Snowden's motives based on the company he keeps.
It's tremendously idiotic. It makes sense for him to go to countries likely to push back on the U.S. extradition request. He went to Hong Kong for reasons which made sense, then left while they temporarily resisted extraditing. He went to Russia with plans to meet with ambassadors from at least one other country, and that plan was arranged by Wikileaks. Now it's not publicly known where he is, and it may not be in Russia anymore.
I'm not supporting these countries at all as having great governments, but to say that he is a supporter of them because he isn't openly criticizing them while they're helping him is just stupid.
You've missed the point that there are other countries likely to push back on the US extradition request that don't have bad human rights records or an antagonistic stance towards the US. Like Iceland and Sweden, as I explained above.
I didn't miss that point, it was just irrelevant to my point, which was that it's absurd to say his point is moot simply because he doesn't criticize the countries he's in as being as bad as he alleges the U.S. is.
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It's not idiotic at all. There are many countries which don't have this sort of issue, eg Iceland (where many were expecting him to go a week ago). Julian Assange seemed quite happy with Sweden until he found himself at odds with the laws on sexual conduct there (and recall that it is to Sweden, rather than the US, that Britain wants to extradite him).
Russia doesn't have an 'imperfect track record' in this area. It has a pretty poor one, and I'm guessing you're not going to see a wave of libertarian idealists heading there any time soon for just this reason. It's not unreasonable to question Snowden's motives based on the company he keeps.
It's tremendously idiotic. It makes sense for him to go to countries likely to push back on the U.S. extradition request. He went to Hong Kong for reasons which made sense, then left while they temporarily resisted extraditing. He went to Russia with plans to meet with ambassadors from at least one other country, and that plan was arranged by Wikileaks. Now it's not publicly known where he is, and it may not be in Russia anymore.
I'm not supporting these countries at all as having great governments, but to say that he is a supporter of them because he isn't openly criticizing them while they're helping him is just stupid.
You've missed the point that there are other countries likely to push back on the US extradition request that don't have bad human rights records or an antagonistic stance towards the US. Like Iceland and Sweden, as I explained above.
I didn't miss that point, it was just irrelevant to my point, which was that it's absurd to say his point is moot simply because he doesn't criticize the countries he's in as being as bad as he alleges the U.S. is.
Is he really "keeping their company?" Seems more that he's using the US foreign policy apparatus for protection.