There are dissidents in the West.

The US State Department is demanding that Russia “extradite” Edward Snowden, because in America “serious accusations” are brought against him, and he is blackmailing with a deterioration of relations ... There are two striking facts about this American demarche. First of all, the memory of the States was utterly discouraged: they kind of forgotten how many of our turncoats who committed serious crimes against Russia took refuge in the USA, and are still hiding there. Secondly, it is striking hysteria in which the State Department falls at the mere mention of the name of Snowden.

Although the damage that he caused the United States, very specific. The secrets of the military-industrial complex and the actual reconnaissance vehicle of the USA, the usual reconnaissance targets of the whole world, this time did not suffer at all. Snowden made publicly what everyone had guessed about before, and the competent authorities of other countries knew for sure: the United States carries out global electronic surveillance all over the world, including itself.

Snowden brought evidence of this, told the world the name of the eavesdropping and peeping American monster - PRISM, which would shed publicity on the unseemly activities of the CIA - a similar act of our defector would be declared a feat in the name of humanity.

The CIA exposer of Snowden, Washington declared no less than "the enemy of the West." Many people understand the inadequacy of such a reaction even in America, and public opinion begins to support Snowden, who has shown loyalty "towards humanity" ...

Why was the State Department so scared? Snowden effect, domino effect. Snowden is the second, if not the third, swallow that has flown in a dangerous direction. The US has not yet dealt with Julian Assange, the whistleblower of American diplomacy, how Snowden appears ... The natural question arises: who is next? And then the public fronde looms on the horizon ... Under the killer slogan: government search-ditches rummage through our underwear, they all have dirty hands ... Therefore, Snowden is declared an "enemy of the West", and the United States demands his exemplary flogging - to intimidate other snowmen.

But there is a more important circumstance. “Who is Snowden?” This question is asked today by all analysts in the West. What is a person who has refused 200 annual income in thousands of dollars and a wealthy life in Hawaii? What did he lack? Glory? But the fame of the CIA whistleblower is associated with considerable risk to life. To exchange life in Hawaii for fleeting fame and mortal danger? It does not fit in the heads of the western inhabitants.

Although the answer to this question is not so difficult, perhaps, just afraid to answer. All this is vaguely reminiscent of ... Well, yes, the Soviet dissidents. True, with one significant difference: they also exposed, and risked, but, with a certain share of luck, could count on life in Hawaii, or at least in the city of Paris. Snowden, like Assange, in this sense, the features are special, one might say, ideological, or idealistic, ready to suffer not in word but in deed. Assange is already under house arrest at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, Snowden is in the customs zone in Moscow. Such people appear when the moral atmosphere in society becomes quite depressing.

Exposing the CIA, Snowden, like all idealists, appeals to simple human feelings of justice and fairness. In correspondence with The Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, he took the pseudonym Verax (Latin honest).

At the same time, he unwittingly destroys the bright image of American democracy, revealing its terrible secret: behind a decent facade lies global surveillance of the world and its own citizens. Any historian will tell you that this is the first and obligatory step towards dictatorship, that is, the image of the USA in the world has been greatly damaged. Hence the hysteria of the State Department ...

The guards of American democracy this time faced a problem that was formulated back in ancient Rome: "Watchmen must be kept safe." It arises in a period of decline and decay of empires, the Roman Empire failed to cope with it ...