Great Article on How and Why Wikileaks Has Become a Tool for Russia

[Tal Vez]

The NY Times explains how and why Assange is working for Putin and Russia.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/01/world/europe/wikileaks-julian-assange-russia.html?_r=0

[anamandujano]

1. He'll always be welcome in Siberia.

WikiLeaks announced that it would soon release some of the crown jewels of American intelligence: a “pristine” set of cyberspying codes. United States officials say they believe with a high degree of confidence that the Democratic Party material was hacked by the Russian government, and suspect that the codes may have been stolen by the Russians as well. That raises a question: Has WikiLeaks become a laundering machine for compromising material gathered by Russian spies?

During his time isolated in the Ecuadorean Embassy, under constant surveillance, his instinctive mistrust of the West hardened even as he became increasingly numb to the abuses of the Kremlin, which he viewed as a “bulwark against Western imperialism,”

[Tal Vez]

2. That is entirely possible.

Assange did tell Snowden that Snowden would not be safe from the Americans in South America and that the Russians were the only country able to protect him. Assange may feel that he too will need to go to Russia if he can get there. Assange has also said that the Russian government knows how to pressure people to do what it wants. He may be speaking from experience. Finally, Russians may be funding Wikileaks now. Whatever it is, it seems clear that he has become a pawn of the Russians and is distributing the documents that they tell him to distribute. Some of those documents may be authentic and some may have been doctored by Russian security. Much of this information and more can be found at this youtube video of a New York Times interview of Assange a few days ago:

[anamandujano]

3. That's got to be a fun existence.

I'd rather be anywhere than under Putin's thumb. No doubt he is a solid gaggle of regret.

[Tal Vez]

4. I guess he has two small rooms without air conditionings.

He is apparently suffering from depression.