While the western media paints Vladmir Putin as some cross between Napoleon and Hitler marauding across Europe breaking international laws willy-nilly, there is one red line he is apparently unwilling to cross. In a somewhat surprising turn of events, none other than Edward Snowden called in to a Putin live telethon and asked the Russian President: "Does Russia intercept millions of citizens’ data?" Putin's response (whether true or not) is worth paying attention to by his opponent on the world stage: "Russia uses surveillance techniques for spying on individuals only with the sanction of a court order. This is our law, and therefore there is no mass surveillance in our country."
Via RT, [7]
Russian intelligence agencies use special media to tap and spy only after a court decision, says Vladimir Putin, answering the question by former NSA agent Edward Snowden on whether the Russian government spies online.
The Russian president said that he like Snowden used to work as a former intelligence officer and said that there is no mass scale or uncontrollable surveillance in Russia as there is in America.
“Russia uses surveillance techniques for spying on individuals only with the sanction of a court order. This is our law, and therefore there is no mass surveillance in our country”, Putin said.
Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who leaked detailed National Security Agency documents on how information is stockpiled on millions of Americans as well as world leaders, appeared via a video link from an undisclosed location to ask Vladimir Putin his question.
It seems even Putin won't publicly cross that red line...