Putin grants Russian citizenship to U.S. whistleblower Snowden By Reuters

(Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin on Monday granted Russian citizenship to former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, 9 years after he uncovered the size of secret surveillance operations by the Nationwide Safety Company (NSA).

Snowden, 39, fled the USA and was given asylum in Russia after leaking secret information in 2013 that exposed huge home and worldwide surveillance operations carried out by the NSA, the place he labored.

U.S. authorities have for years wished him returned to the USA to face a legal trial on espionage fees.

Snowden’s identify appeared with out Kremlin remark in a Putin decree conferring citizenship on 72 foreign-born people.

Snowden later issued a message, primarily an up to date model of a November 2020 tweet, saying he wished his household to stay collectively and asking for privateness.

“After years of separation from our mother and father, my spouse and I’ve no want to be separated from our SONS,” the tweet learn.

“After two years of ready and practically ten years of exile, slightly stability will make a distinction for my household. I pray for privateness for them – and for us all.”

The brand new tweet made no reference to the Kremlin chief’s decree, but it surely was hooked up to a 2020 Twitter (NYSE:) thread through which Snowden stated he and his household have been making use of for twin U.S.-Russian citizenship.

The information prompted some Russians to jokingly ask whether or not Snowden can be known as up for army service, 5 days after Putin introduced Russia’s first public mobilization since World Struggle 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 darkish humour on her Telegram channel.

Snowden’s lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, informed RIA information company that his consumer couldn’t be known as up as a result of he had not beforehand served within the Russian military.

He stated that Snowden’s spouse Lindsay (NYSE:) Mills, who gave start to a son in 2020, would additionally apply for citizenship.

U.S. State Division spokesperson Ned Value stated he was unaware of any change to Snowden’s standing as a U.S. citizen.

“I’m conversant in the truth that he has in some methods denounced his American citizenship. I do not know that he is renounced it,” Value stated in a press briefing.

Russia granted Snowden everlasting residency rights in 2020, paving the way in which for him to acquire Russian citizenship.

That 12 months a U.S. appeals courtroom discovered this system Snowden had uncovered was illegal and that the U.S. intelligence leaders who publicly defended it weren’t telling the reality.

Putin, a former Russian spy chief, stated in 2017 that Snowden, who retains a low profile whereas dwelling in Russia, was mistaken to leak U.S. secrets and techniques however was not a traitor.