President Vladimir Putin on Monday gave Russian citizenship to previous U.S. intelligence specialist Edward Snowden, 9 years after he exposed the scale of secret monitoring operations by the National Security Agency (NSA).
Snowden, 39, ran away the United States and was offered asylum in Russia after dripping secret files in 2013 that exposed large domestic and global security operations performed by the NSA, where he worked.
U.S. authorities have for years desired him went back to the United States to deal with a criminal trial on espionage charges.
There was no instant response from Snowden, whose name appeared with no Kremlin talk about a list of 72 foreign-born people on whom Putin was providing citizenship.
In 2020, Russia approved Snowden irreversible residency rights, leading the way for him to get Russian citizenship.
That year a U.S. appeals court discovered the program Snowden had actually exposed was illegal which the U.S. intelligence leaders who openly protected it were not informing the fact.
Putin, a previous Russian spy chief, stated in 2017 that Snowden, who keeps a low profile while residing in Russia, was incorrect to leakage U.S. tricks however was not a traitor.
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