Quote

The starting point for understanding the deterioration in the relationship between the U.S. and Russia lies in Washington rather than Moscow. After 1989, Russia was a defeated power. Despite the fine words and some limited gestures, the Americans have treated it like one. Their policy has been one of encirclement.

Russia continues to side with... rogue states and terrorist organizations, following Vladimir Putin's pattern of gratuitous and unpunished affronts to U.S. interests.

Of course the United States and Russia have different interests. Nevertheless, both are strategic partners.

Today's difference between Russia and the United States is that in Russia everybody takes everybody else for a spy, and in the United States everybody takes everybody else for a criminal.

Indeed, Russia and the U.S. were allies during the two tragic conflicts of the Second and the First World Wars, which allows us to think there's something objectively bringing us together in difficult times, and I think - I believe - it has to do with geopolitical interests and also has a moral component.

I think in some ways what Snowden is, is he's a mix of a cold war spy novel and post-9/11 spy novel.

The Russian people get so insanely close to each other as friends. Their lives are interrelated so much on an everyday basis.

Russia is emerging as an essential diplomatic and security partner for the U.S. in Syria, despite the Obama administration's opposition to Moscow's support for President Bashar al-Assad.

The jealousy and resentment that animate the terrorists also affect many of our former cold war allies.

What Edward Snowden did amounted to the greatest hemorrhaging of legitimate American secrets in the history of my nation.