Russian President Vladimir Putin
has compared fired FBI chief James Comey's act of leaking information to media to
that of a human rights activist. "Comey's leak of information to the media
was more in line with an activist than an intelligence chief," USA Today*
quoted him saying. Putin said this while holding his annual 'Direct Line'
Q&A call-in session yesterday.
Comparing James Comey to Edward
Snowden, a sarcastic Putin said Russia was ready to grant asylum to Comey in
case he is prosecuted for those leaks, “It sounds very strange when the head of
the security services writes down a conversation with the commander-in-chief
and then leaks it to the media through his friend. How, in that case, does he
differ from Edward Snowden?,” The Guardian** wrote quoting him. Edward Snowden,
who is facing espionage charges in the US, is a whistleblower and former CIA
contractor who leaked US intelligence documents of mass surveillance and was
given political asylum by Russia.
Putin added that since Comey's
acts are more like an activist than an intelligence chief, if the latter feels
pressured in the US or if he is prosecuted, Russia would be happy to grant him
political asylum.
In his testimony, former FBI
chief James Comey had said that he intentionally leaked memo on his
conversation with Trump to build pressure to appoint special counsel in the
case. Comey’s strategy worked after the US Department of Justice appointed
former FBI Director Robert Mueller special counsel to probe Russian meddling
into the last year’s US presidential election.
©SantoshChaubey
