Edward Snowden and his wife are applying for Russian citizenship so as not to be separated from their future son in an era of pandemics and closed borders, the US whistle-blower said yesterday.
Snowden’s wife, Lindsay Mills, is expecting a child late next month, the RIA Novosti news agency cited Anatoly Kucherena, his Russian lawyer, as saying.
Snowden, 37, fled the US and was given asylum in Russia after leaking secret files in 2013 that revealed vast domestic and international surveillance operations carried out by the US National Security Agency where he was a contractor.
Photo: Reuters
US authorities have for years wanted Snowden returned to the US to face a criminal trial on espionage charges brought in 2013.
“After years of separation from our parents, my wife and I have no desire to be separated from our son. That’s why, in this era of pandemics and closed borders, we’re applying for dual US-Russian citizenship,” Snowden wrote on Twitter.
“Lindsay and I will remain Americans, raising our son with all the values of the America we love — including the freedom to speak his mind, and I look forward to the day I can return to the States, so the whole family can be reunited,” he wrote. “Our greatest wish is that, wherever our son lives, he feels at home.”
Russia has already granted Snowden permanent residency rights, his lawyer said last month, a vital step toward Russian citizenship.
In April, Russia adopted a law allowing dual citizenship in an attempt to partially offset a growing demographic crisis that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Previously, people seeking to become Russian had to renounce their foreign citizenship.
US President Donald Trump in August said that he was considering a pardon for Snowden.
Snowden keeps a low profile in Russia. He has praised the country’s natural beauty and the warmth of its people, while using social media to criticize government policy from time to time.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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