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Edward Snowden said Russian citizenship will give his family stability nearly a decade after the former National Security Agency contractor leaked files on US surveillance operations and fled to Moscow.
“After two years of waiting and nearly ten years of exile, a little bit of stability will make a difference for my family. I pray for privacy for them and all of us,” Snowden tweeted Monday in his first public comments since the Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decree granting him citizenship.
Snowden said two years ago that he would apply for dual US-Russian citizenship after he was granted permanent residence in Russia.
State Department spokesman Ned Price on Monday reiterated the US stance that Snowden should go back to trial on espionage charges.
“I know that he somehow denounced his American citizenship,” Price said. “I don’t know if she gave it up.”
EDWARD SNOWDEN SAYS BARACK OBAMA MADE SURVEILLANCE ‘WORSE’
In this photo from February 14, 2015, Edward Snowden appears in a live video feed broadcast from Moscow during an ACLU Hawaii sponsored event in Honolulu.
(Photo AP / Marco Garcia, File)
Snowden’s wife, American Lindsay Mills, will also apply for Russian citizenship, her attorney told the new state-owned RIA Novosti outlet. Snowden tweeted a photo Monday of Mills and the couple’s two children.
The US whistleblower’s revelations in 2013 about the NSA’s surveillance operations were praised by privacy advocates and harsh condemnation from US officials who accused him of harming national security.
His newly acquired Russian citizenship comes amid mounting tensions between Moscow and Washington, DC
Ukrainian troops recaptured a large swath of territory from Russia on Monday, reaching as far as the northeastern border in places, and claimed to have captured many Russian soldiers as part of a lightning advance that forced Moscow into a hasty retreat. .
(Photo AP / Kostiantyn Liberov)
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Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is entering its eighth month, with the Kremlin ordering a partial mobilization to enlist 300,000 Russians in the army.
Price hinted on Monday that Snowden could be drafted and sent to Ukraine, but his lawyer told Russian media that that won’t happen.
