World

Putin grants Russian citizenship to US whistleblower Snowden

September 27, 2022 12:25 pm

[Source:Aljazeera]

President Vladimir Putin has granted Russian citizenship to former US security contractor Edward Snowden, according to a decree signed by the Russian leader.

Snowden is one of 75 foreign nationals granted Russian citizenship by the decree published on an official government website on Monday.

The 39-year-old, a former contractor with the US National Security Agency, has been living in Russia since 2013 to escape prosecution in the United States after leaking classified documents detailing government surveillance programmes.

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The documents revealed vast domestic and international surveillance operations carried out by the National Security Agency.

He was granted permanent residency in 2020 and said at the time that he planned to apply for Russian citizenship, without renouncing his US citizenship.

That year a US appeals court found the programme Snowden had exposed was unlawful and that the US intelligence leaders who publicly defended it were not telling the truth.