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I think his status makes him more believable, considering he is one of the only ones who told the truth about the American surveillance system. You know his conscience is more important to him than his job or family. I would say that makes him pretty trustworthy.

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I'm not convinced he is in a state where we can be sure his conscious is driving what he says.

As others have noted: Russia has a history of intimidating, silencing, and secretly killing dissidents. Simply being in Russia means that whatever Snowden is saying, is tacitly "blessed" by the Russian government.

Of course it is, he is embarassing their biggest competitor and ripping the band-aid off the gaping wound the US likes to call "freedom."

Why mess with the golden goose? They just let Snowden do his thing, he doesn't have any useful intel for them as they are running the same types of programs.

You are correct that if Russia didn't like what he is saying he'd be in detention. They really like how he embarasses US.

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