The ordeal’s only victor is Putin, who now has grounds to dismiss US criticism of his authoritarian rule. Indeed, at the slightest provocation, Putin will be able to point to America’s hypocrisy for spying on, say, European Union facilities as part of expanded surveillance programs supposedly within the scope of the war on terror, and for hunting Snowden after accusing Russia of unfairly prosecuting the whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky.