Edward Snowden, the American whistleblower who leaked the sensitive documents of NSA’s mass surveillance in 2013, has been given a permanent residency permit by the Russian government. This was confirmed by his lawyers to Russian news publications. Snowden has earlier agreed to return to the US if he is promised a fair trial of his case.
Snowden Gets Permanent Residency Permit in Russia
To starters, Edward Snowden is a former contractor for the US National Security Agency, who surfaced the covert operations of the US government regarding its mass surveillance on domestic and international citizens. While it’s a breach of privacy according to laws, the government in return has charged Snowden with espionage act.
He then fled to other countries and eventually settled in Russia, and living there since 2013 seeking a fair trial from the US government on his case. While everyone’s supporting his act in leaking this, the US government is still mad at this, even though Trump said that he’d be given a fair chance to explain things.
But now, his Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena has revealed to local newspapers that Snowden was granted a permanent residency permit by the Russian government. He said, “His (Russian) residency permit was expiring and we asked to extend it.”
Further, “We submitted the documents in April and we got the permanent residency rights (on Thursday).” He said the process for this had taken longer than usual due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Also, he confirmed that Snowden is not considering applying for a Russian passport at this point.
He’s living in asylum in Russia for years and praised the local culture and people for their gestures. Also, he criticized the government’s rules over social media regulations. Yet, he was now permitted to stay unlimited time, according to the amendments made in Russian immigration laws last year.
