EX-U.S. SECURITY CONTRACTOR EDWARD SNOWDEN GRANTED RUSSIAN CITIZENSHIP

Sep 26, 2022

By Bob Komsic

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MOSCOW (AP) — Russia on Monday granted citizenship to former American intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who fled prosecution after he revealed highly classified U.S. surveillance programs to capture communications and data from around the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(AP File, Snowden in Moscow, 2013)

 

A decree signed Monday by Russian President Vladimir Putin listed Snowden as one of 75 foreign citizens listed as being granted Russian citizenship.

After fleeing the U.S. in 2013, Snowden was granted permanent Russian residency in 2020 and said at the time that he planned to apply for Russian citizenship without renouncing his U.S. citizenship.

While Snowden, 39, is considered by supporters to be a righteous whistleblower who wanted to protect American civil liberties, U.S. intelligence officials have accused him of putting U.S. personnel at risk and damaging national security.

He currently faces charges in the United States that could result in decades in prison.

“Our position has not changed,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said Monday.

“Mr. Snowden should return to the United States where he should face justice as any other American citizen would.”

Snowden becomes a Russian citizen as Moscow is mobilizing reservists to go to Ukraine.

In Russia, almost every man is considered a reservist until age 65, and officials on Monday stressed that men with dual citizenship are also eligible for the military call-up.

Snowden, however, has never served in the Russian armed forces, so he is not eligible to be mobilized, his lawyer Anatoly Kucherena told the Interfax news agency.

Snowden, who has kept a low profile in Russia and occasionally criticized Russian government policies on social media, said in 2019 that he was willing to return to the U.S. if he’s guaranteed a fair trial.

He hasn’t commented on being granted Russian citizenship.

Snowden leaked documents on the National Security Agency’s collection of data passing through the infrastructure of U.S. phone and internet companies. He also released details about the classified U.S. intelligence budget and the extent of American surveillance on foreign officials, including the leaders of U.S.-allied countries.

Snowden says he made the disclosures because he believed the U.S. intelligence community had gone too far and wrongly infringed on civil liberties.

He also has said he didn’t believe the administration of former President Barack Obama, which was in office when Snowden leaked the records to journalists, would act had he made an internal whistleblower complaint instead.

Snowden’s decision to turn against the NSA came when he used his programming skills to to create a repository of classified in-house notes on the agency’s global snooping and as he built a backup system for agency data, he wrote in his 2019 book “Permanent Record.”

Snowden was charged in 2013 with unauthorized disclosure of U.S. national security and intelligence information as well as theft of government property.

The three charges each carry a maximum 10-year penalty.

The Justice Department also sued to stop Snowden from collecting profits on his memoir, saying he had violated his nondisclosure agreements with intelligence agencies.

The White House on Monday referred comment on Snowden’s citizenship to the Justice Department, citing the pending criminal charges.

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