President Vladimir Putin has granted Russian citizenship to whistleblower and former US NSA employee Edward Snowden, who has been a refugee in Russia since 2013 after leaving the United States, according to a decree issued on Monday.
The name of Mr. Snowden appears alongside dozens of others in this decree published on the site of the Russian government.
Edward Snowden, 39, is wanted by the United States for having transmitted to the press tens of thousands of documents from the American National Security Agency (NSA) proving the extent of electronic surveillance carried out by Washington.
These revelations had then aroused very strong tensions between the United States and their allies and the decision of the Russian authorities to grant him a residence permit had angered Washington.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Ria Novosti news agency that Russian citizenship was granted to Edward Snowden at his own request.
The whistleblower’s Russian lawyer, Anatoly Koutcherena, for his part specified that Mr. Snowden would not be affected by the mobilization order for the offensive in Ukraine, decreed by Vladimir Putin last week for certain categories of Russians.
“He did not serve in the Russian army and therefore, according to our current legislation, he does not fall into this category of citizens who are now called up,” he told the Ria Novosti agency.
According to him, Mr Snowden’s partner, Lindsay Mills, has also applied for Russian citizenship and their daughter already has it, having been born in Russia.
Edward Snowden, deprived of his American passport at the request of Washington, found himself in Moscow in May 2013 after arriving there from Hong Kong and intending to find refuge in Latin America. He eventually found himself stranded in Russia, where he was granted asylum.