Russian President Vladimir Putin is showing his gamesmanship on a global stage by giving his voters what they want with the asylum granted to ex-U.S. contractor Edward Snowden while leaving the White House flustered.
The decision is backed by almost twice as many Russians as those against it, and those who view Snowden's role as positive outnumber negative assessments by 3-to-1.
While the case risks derailing U.S.-Russian relations, it gives Putin a chance to rally support at home and deflect attention from his own human-rights record, said Gleb Pavlovsky, a former Kremlin adviser who heads the Effective Policy Foundation in Moscow. "Domestically, he got what he can," Pavlovsky said. "His main propaganda message domestically will be that things are similar everywhere: The CIA and the FBI violate human rights, just like everybody else."