Russia on Monday granted citizenship to former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who fled prosecution after he revealed highly classified US surveillance programs to capture communications and data from around the world.
A decree signed on Monday by Russian President Vladimir Putin listed Snowden as one of 75 foreign citizens listed as being granted Russian citizenship.
After fleeing the US 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 US citizenship.
Photo: The Guardian / AFP
Ties between Washington and Moscow are already at their lowest point in decades following Putin’s decision to launch what the Kremlin has dubbed a “special military operation” in Ukraine.
While Snowden, 39, is considered by supporters to be a righteous whistle-blower who wanted to protect US civil liberties, US intelligence officials have accused him of putting US personnel at risk and damaging national security. He currently faces charges in the US that could result in decades in prison.
“Our position has not changed,” US Department of State 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. Almost every man in Russia is considered a reservist until age 65 and officials on Monday said that men with dual citizenship are also eligible for the military call-up.
However, Snowden 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. Having previous combat or military service experience has been considered the main criterion in the call-up.
Kucherena told Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti that Snowden’s wife, Lindsay Mills, an American who has been living with him in Russia, would also be applying for a Russian passport. The couple has two children.
“After two years of waiting and nearly ten years of exile, a little stability will make a difference for my family,” Snowden wrote on Twitter. “I pray for privacy for them — and for us all.”
Andrei Soldatov, a Russian investigative journalist known for his exposes of Moscow security services, said that “strictly speaking, [Snowden] could be drafted, strictly in theory.”
But that would be bad public relations for the Kremlin so it would not happen, said Soldatov, who is on Russia’s wanted list for “spreading false information.”
Russian authorities have also frozen his bank accounts and he lives in exile.
Snowden, who has kept a low profile in Russia and occasionally criticized Russian government policies on social media, in 2019 said that he was willing to return to the US if he is guaranteed a fair trial.
Snowden has become a well-known speaker on privacy and intelligence issues, appearing remotely at many events from Russia, but he has been sharply criticized by members of the intelligence community, and current and former officials from both the main US political parties say he endangered global security by exposing important programs. A US damage assessment of his disclosures is still classified.
James Clapper, who served as US director of national intelligence at the time of the disclosures, said Snowden’s grant of citizenship came with “rather curious timing.”
“It raises the question — again — about just what he shared with the Russians,” Clapper said in an e-mail on Monday.
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