Edward Snowden fled to Russia after passing on highly confidential documents from the US secret service NSA to the media in 2013. Now the whistleblower is officially a Russian citizen. The US is still demanding his extradition.
According to a media report, the whistleblower and native US citizen Edward Snowden has received his Russian passport. Snowden had also "sworn the oath," the state news agency Tass quoted his lawyer Anatoly Kutscherena as saying. A statement from the 39-year-old Snowden is not yet available.
Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin granted Snowden Russian citizenship at the end of September. The 39-year-old's name was on a list of new citizens published by the Kremlin. Snowden had previously revealed after his son's birth in Russia that he was applying for citizenship to have the same rights as the child born in 2020, who received Russian citizenship automatically.
In 2013, Snowden gave journalists documents on spying activities by the US surveillance service NSA and its British counterpart GCHQ. According to his own statements, he wanted to flee via Hong Kong to Ecuador, but ended up stranded at the airport in Moscow after the US government canceled his passport.
Russia granted asylum to Snowden and his wife Lindsay. They applied for Russian citizenship after birth. They didn't want to risk being separated from their son, the American had said in 2020. They said they did not want to give up their American citizenship at the time. The US continues to urge Snowden to return to the United States to face justice.
