Embattled and denounced around the world, Russian President Vladimir Putin granted NSA leaker Edward Snowden, who flew to Moscow in 2013, full citizenship.
Snowden is best-known for leaking classified intelligence documents which he gained access to as a contractor with the National Security Agency.
The Associated Press notes that in 2020 Snowden was granted permanent residency in Russia and applied for Russian citizenship.
Putin’s move comes just days after announcing at least 300,000 more Russians would be conscripted to fight his war in Ukraine, which has been condemned worldwide. Putin and his military are accused of war crimes including rape and summary execution, looting, and bombing civilian infrastructure.
“Ukrainian forces said they found mass graves and evidence that civilians had been killed after their feet and hands were bound,” the BBC reported in July.
“In March,” the BBC added, “a Russian strike on a theatre in Mariupol appeared to be the first confirmed location of a mass killing. The word ‘children’ was written in giant letters outside the building.”
Last week in his Substack newsletter Snowden launched an attack on President Joe Biden and the CIA.
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“It hasn’t been a month since President Biden mounted the steps of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, declaring it his duty to ensure each of us understands the central faction of his political opposition are extremists that ‘threaten the very foundations of our Republic,'” Snowden wrote, blasting the American President for his speech warning that Donald Trump and his MAGA Republicans are dangers to democracy, a fact supported by the hundreds of prosecutions of January 6 insurrectionists and the numerous legal and civil cases being brought against the former president.
“Congratulations to Ed Snowden who — after a recent attack conflating CIA torture and Biden — has now earned his Russian citizenship,” commented National security and civil liberties journalist Marcy Wheeler.
Investigative journalist and fellow at the New America think tank, Dave Troy has been focusing on threats to democracy. On the news Snowden is now a Russian citizen, he writes: “It’s time for us to come to grips with the fact that the Snowden, [Glenn] Greenwald, [Julian] Assange ops were all part of a years-long Russia-supported effort to upend the West.”
Snowden handed the leaked intelligence documents to journalist Glenn Greenwald.
Troy goes on to suggest Paul Manafort and Mike Flynn belong in that category as well.