Just thought I'd leave this here. Your country may be having issues when you start getting lectured by The President of Russia on civil liberties. Putin of course was the head of the KGB.
Data surveillance is an acceptable measure if done within the law, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin told RT while visiting the channel in the capital.
Speaking to RT the Russian president stressed that Snowden revealed "nothing we didn’t know before", adding that surveillance "is becoming a global phenomenon in the context of combatting international terrorism", and that "such methods are generally practicable".
But Putin pointed out that "the question is how well those security agencies are controlled by the public."
"I can tell you that, at least in Russia, you cannot just go and tap into someone’s phone conversation without a warrant issued by court,” Putin said answering the question of RT’s Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan.
“That’s more or less the way a civilized society should go about fighting terrorism with modern-day technology. As long as it is exercised within the boundaries of the law that regulates intelligence activities, it’s alright. But if it’s unlawful, then it’s bad.”
Commenting on Obama’s statement that “You can’t have 100 per cent security and 100 per cent privacy,” Putin disagreed, saying it is possible if done within the law.
Earlier on Tuesday, Putin's press-secretary Dmitry Peskov told to a newspaper that Russia could consider the possibility of granting political asylum to 29-year-old Edward Snowden, if such a request is made. The ex-CIA worker is behind one of the biggest leaks of our time as he disclosed the existence of PRISM, the National Security Agency’s (NSA) massive data-mining surveillance program, to The Guardian last week.