Pavel K Baev - Mentions and Appearances
This hot potato is good fun for a while, but Putin is definitely looking for an elegant way to throw [the Snowden affair] to somebody else's lap.
This sort of development objectively puts Putin on the course of a kind of self-isolation [and] greater tension with the West, because, for the West, opposition forces in Russia [are] something very sympathetic. For Putin, it is a mortal enemy with which he can fight, with which he will fight, tooth and nail. Putin will have to use every instrument at his disposal, including presenting the whole thing as a plot by the West and the United States in particular.