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Intro: Whether hero or traitor, former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden is the most important whistle-blower of modern times, one whose disclosures will reverberate for decades to come.
In 2014 there was article on Vanity Fair:
The Snowden Saga: A Shadowland of Secrets and Light
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Snowden Speaks: A Vanity Fair Special Report
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Former contractor of U.S. National Security Agency Edward Snowden is seen on a screen during his interview presented via video link at the New Knowledge educational online forum in Moscow, Russia September 2, 2021. REUTERS/Olesya Astakhova
Sept 26 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Monday granted Russian citizenship to former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, nine years after he exposed the scale of secret surveillance operations by the National Security Agency (NSA).
Snowden, 39, fled the United States and was given asylum in Russia after leaking secret files in 2013 that revealed vast domestic and international surveillance operations carried out by the NSA, where he worked.
U.S. authorities have for years wanted him returned to the United States to face a criminal trial on espionage charges.
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Putin Gives Former NSA Contractor Edward Snowden Russian Citizenship
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Putin grants Russian citizenship to U.S. whistleblower Snowden
Topline
"Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a decree granting Russian citizenship to Edward Snowden, a former security consultant who fled the U.S. after leaking highly classified information about the National Security Agency in 2013.
Key Facts
Snowden, who is wanted by U.S. authorities for sharing the information with several U.S. media outlets, was one of 73 foreigners granted citizenship by the Kremlin.
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The announcement comes nine years after Snowden fled the U.S. and was granted asylum in Russia after sharing hundreds of highly classified NSA documents to the Guardian and the Washington Post.
Snowden was charged by the Department of Justice in 2013 with violating the Espionage Act, for which he could have faced decades in prison.
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Key Background
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Snowden’s leaks were among the largest security breaches in U.S. history. While working as a subcontractor at the NSA, Snowden shared documents with the media containing information on several global surveillance programs carried out by the agency. A two-year investigation led by a bipartisan group of lawmakers claimed Snowden’s actions amounted to “the largest and most damaging public release of classified information in U.S. intelligence history,” while refuting Snowden’s claims he acted as a privacy whistleblower. The 2016 House Intelligence Committee report concluded the leak caused significant damage to national security and that the majority of documents leaked were related to military, defense and intelligence programs “of great interest to America’s adversaries” instead of “programs impacting individual privacy interests.” Snowden said in 2020 he planned to apply for Russian citizenship after being granted permanent residency there."
Further Reading
Vladimir Putin grants former NSA contractor Edward Snowden Russian citizenship (CNN)
Putin grants citizenship to Edward Snowden, who disclosed U.S. surveillance (Washington Post)
RELATED CONTENT
Putin grants Russian citizenship to U.S. whistleblower Snowden
Former contractor of U.S. National Security Agency Edward Snowden is
seen on a screen during his interview presented via video link at the
New Knowledge educational online forum in Moscow, Russia September 2,
2021. REUTERS/Olesya Astakhova
Former contractor of U.S. National Security Agency Edward Snowden is seen on a screen during his interview presented via video link at the New Knowledge educational online forum in Moscow, Russia September 2, 2021. REUTERS/Olesya Astakhova
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Sept 26 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Monday granted Russian citizenship to former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, nine years after he exposed the scale of secret surveillance operations by the National Security Agency (NSA).
Snowden, 39, fled the United States and was given asylum in Russia after leaking secret files in 2013 that revealed vast domestic and international surveillance operations carried out by the NSA, where he worked.
U.S. authorities have for years wanted him returned to the United States to face a criminal trial on espionage charges.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
There was no immediate reaction from Snowden, whose name appeared without Kremlin comment in a Putin decree conferring citizenship on a list of 72 foreign-born people.
The news prompted some Russians to jokingly ask whether Snowden would be called up for military service, five days after Putin announced Russia's first public mobilization since World War Two to shore up its faltering invasion of Ukraine.
"Will Snowden be drafted?" Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the state media outlet RT and a vocal Putin supporter, wrote with dark humour on her Telegram channel.
Snowden's lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, told RIA news agency that his client could not be called up because he had not previously served in the Russian army.
He said that Snowden's wife Lindsay Mills, who gave birth to a son in 2020, would also apply for citizenship.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said he was unaware of any change to Snowden's status as a U.S. citizen.
"I am familiar with the fact that he has in some ways denounced his American citizenship. I don't know that he's renounced it," Price said in a press briefing.
Russia granted Snowden permanent residency rights in 2020, paving the way for him to obtain Russian citizenship.
That year a U.S. appeals court found the program Snowden had exposed was unlawful and that the U.S. intelligence leaders who publicly defended it were not telling the truth.
Putin, a former Russian spy chief, said in 2017 that Snowden, who keeps a low profile while living in Russia, was wrong to leak U.S. secrets but was not a traitor.
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Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Grant McCool
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