Britain should rise above Russian money and power

I thought this quote was great: "Russia is a state that is effectively run by its intelligence services. Mr Putin is a former KGB operative. Spies and their cronies dominate his inner circle. Indeed Russia – which has become Mr Snowden’s temporary protector – is the perfect illustration of his argument that a state in thrall to its intelligence services would be a frightening place."

It's funny how much the US is starting to parallel this, or perhaps already does (or even exceeds it, and we are just starting to realize it).

We did have one president who was a former director of the CIA, as recently as 1988, and then his son for 8 years.

When we live in the information bubble of US media, we don't think about how it might look to a foreigner. Kind of like a goldfish not noticing the water he's swimming in.