With Snowden offer, Venezuela's Maduro is on world stage Among those offering sanctuary to Snowden, oil-rich, anti- imperialist Venezuela stands out: a country with an intense antipathy toward the United States and just enough muscle to make Snowden's escape from American law enforcement a possibility. It also appears that Russian officials, eager to end the diplomatic fallout of having Snowden in Moscow, see their close ally, Venezuela, as offering the clearest solution. "The situation with Snowden is creating additional tension in relations with Washington that are complex as they are," Alexei Pushkov, head of the foreign affairs committee in Russia's lower house of parliament, told the newspaper Kommersant on Monday. Pushkov, whose comments dependably reflect the Kremlin's position on foreign affairs, said the Snowden saga needed to be settled before President Obama arrives in September to meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. "And judging by the way things are unfolding," Pushkov told the newspaper, "this is how it's going to be." Over the weekend, Pushkov had also said that giving asylum to Snowden in Venezuela could not damage President Nicolás Maduro, since his government's relations with Washington are already in tatters. "It can't get worse," Pushkov said in a Twitter message. Newly elected and facing staggering economic problems at home despite the country's oil wealth, Maduro appears to have made a high-pitched, openly hostile position against the Obama administration a cornerstone of his government's foreign policy. He took his most provocative stand on Friday when he announced in a speech that Venezuela would take in Snowden. Maduro has accused the United States of fomenting protests against his government after his disputed April 14 election victory, which gave him the presidency his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, had held for 14 turbulent years until his death from cancer. The Snowden saga - a young American revealing secrets the U.S. government wants to contain - provided the perfect opportunity for Maduro to take on the Obama administration, said Eduardo Semtei, a former Venezuelan government official. "To figure internationally, to show that he is a player among big powers, he offered asylum to Snowden," said Semtei, who had been close to Chávez's brother, Adán, a leading ideologue in the late president's radical movement. This grabs headlines, and it shows that he's a strong president, one with character, and that he's capable of challenging the United States.