Vladimir Putin grants Edward Snowden Russian citizenship

President Vladimir Putin has granted Russian citizenship to US whistleblower Edward Snowden, who exposed massive surveillance by the US NSA on Americans and then sought refuge in Russia.

Edward Snowden in 2013. Picture: AFP

President Vladimir Putin has granted Russian citizenship to US whistleblower Edward Snowden, who exposed massive surveillance by the US National Security Agency on Americans and then sought refuge in Russia.

A presidential decree published on Monday included Mr Snowden on a list of newly minted Russian citizens, at a time when relations between Washington and Moscow are at historic lows over the conflict in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Mr Snowden had received Russian citizenship as a result of his own request, made in 2020 to make it easier for his American wife, Lindsay Mills, to travel back and forth.

“After years of separation from our parents, my wife and I have no desire to be separated from our SONS,” Mr Snowden tweeted.

“After two years of waiting and nearly ten years of exile, a little stability will make a difference for my family.”

The former American intelligence contractor, 39, leaked secret documents to media outlets in 2013 revealing that the NSA was collecting massive amounts of communications metadata and other information on US citizens, in violation of their constitutional right to privacy.

The expose of the NSA’s secret spying program led to laws and regulations forbidding that activity.

After revealing those secrets, Mr Snowden sought refuge in Russia. He married longtime girlfriend Ms Mills in Moscow in 2017.

Three years later they had a son, and Mr Snowden said he would seek Russian citizenship to make it easier for his family to be together, especially given the travel restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

But he said he wanted to keep his US nationality.

“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 said at the time. The couple had a second son this year.

Mr Snowden’s lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that Ms Mills would also now apply for Russian citizenship.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price said Mr Snowden, who has been charged with multiple felonies in the US court system, retains his American citizenship.

“I’m not aware of any change in his citizenship status,” Mr Price said. “The only thing that has changed is that as a result of his Russian citizenship, apparently now he may well be conscripted to fight in the reckless war” in Ukraine.

Mr Putin last week announced a mobilisation of 300,000 Russian reservists to contribute to the Russian army’s fight in Ukraine.

However, Mr Kucherena said Mr Snowden would not be called up to serve given he had no prior experience in the Russian army.

AFP