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I don't know if this line of thinking will get any play on this forum as I have read people praising him constantly, but what does this mean for Snowden? He was working for the NSA, stole secrets from his government and gave it to reporters to distribute, and then sought and received asylum in Russia with the help of WikiLeaks. If WikiLeaks is heavily connected to the Russian government, at what stage can we say that Snowden effectively defected to Russia?

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tbh I'm not sure even if there was hard evidence of Assange as an intentional Russian asset it would greatly change the complexion of Snowden's situation, unless records were produced of him offering Snowden the support of the government of Russia before he released anything. If anything, it might make him more likely to have been duped into having little choice of destination to flee to other than Russia.

The military's view Snowden defected as soon as he released classified info and added to the charge sheet by fleeing to Russia isn't really contingent on whose advice he took either.

And the published bits correspondence isn't really evidence of Assange being particularly closely connected to the Russian government; if anything it's so crass, self-absorbed and risky it points towards the opposite.

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