Edward Snowden, a former U.S. intelligence contractor, has been given Russian citizenship. Snowden was the whistleblower who released sensitive National Security Agency data, exposing the scope of American State surveillance. Putin, the president of Russia, signed the proclamation. 39-year-old Edward Snowden has been living in exile in Russia ever since he revealed the NSA programme that affects millions of Americans. Snowden will be charged with espionage in the US starting in 2013.

He has expressed his happiness at being granted Russian citizenship because it will allow his family to remain together. Snowden had previously stated that he and his then-ex-wife were pursuing Russian citizenship to avoid being separated from their unborn son in 2020. And of course, this was during the pandemic and restricted border times. He was awarded rights to permanent residence in Russia in the same year, 2020. And now that he has Russian citizenship, it has made it possible for him. He said, and I quote, "My wife and I have no wish to be separated from our son after years of separation from our parents."

Snowden was amongst 72 foreign-born applicants who were granted Russian citizenship

On a list of 72 people who were born abroad and were receiving citizenship from Vladimir Putin was Snowden's name. However, the question of why Edward Snowden is receiving citizenship at this time remains relevant. Could Edward Snowden have given Putin access to sensitive material that might have an impact on the ongoing special military operation in Ukraine? The decision by Putin to grant Snowden citizenship swiftly sparked several jokes on social media. Many questioned whether the informant would soon be enlisted in the Russian military. Recall that Vladimir Putin announced a limited mobilisation to fight in Ukraine last week. This was a component of the nationwide partial military draught in Russia. Will Snowden be called upon? That was the main query on both social media and the state-run Russian media. Anatoli Kucharina, Snowden's Russian attorney, told the official news agency RIA Novosti that his client was ineligible for the draught since he had never been a member of the Russian military. Lindsey Mills, Snowden's wife, was also applying for Russian citizenship, he noted.

Whistleblower Edward Snowden has generally maintained a low profile throughout his recent residence in Russia. On his social media pages, he does periodically continue to post pictures of his family in Moscow. He has previously stated that if he could be assured of a fair trial, he would be willing to return to the United States. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Snowden, who has repeatedly condemned the Kremlin's human rights record, has been silent. In reality, he had previously expressed uncertainty about whether Russia would strike Ukraine at all before the conflict. He frequently ascribed responsibility for drawing Russia into the conflict to the Western media. However, the timing of Russia's decision to grant Snowden citizenship is intriguing. Why now? Why amid a running battle?

The timing of the citizenship grant raises eyebrows

According to one observer, the timing was somewhat peculiar. It brings up the question of exactly what Snowden has disclosed to the Russians once more. It is quite doubtful that Edward Snowden currently possesses any intelligence that could be crucial to the outcome of the war in Ukraine. Because of the pressure, Russia has called for a fresh national draught, even if it's only partially complete, and hasn't ruled out a full draught in the future. If it came down to that, Putin's argument would also be hurt by the pictures of young Russians escaping the nation through aeroplanes and other land borders. Cooperating with Russian intelligence has been denied by Snowden. He only claims that he was passing through Moscow when the United States cancelled his passport, forcing him to establish himself there.

Using the phone and internet records of common American residents, Snowden has created a backup of the US National Security Agency's intrusive programmes. Now, the timing of the citizenship award to him raises an intriguing query. Is it still possible for Edward Snowden to find material that is pertinent to the current conflict using the backup systems he created? What information would he be able to provide the Russians? The National Security Agency collected data and used phone and internet firms to pass through crucial infrastructure, according to documents released by Snowden. He also disclosed specifics regarding the secret US intelligence budget and the breadth of American surveillance of both domestic residents and foreign officials. Not to mention, some of these foreign officials were important allies of the United States.

Snowden, disclosed these revelations because he thought the US intelligence community had overstepped its bounds and improperly violated civil liberties. Additionally, he has stated that he does not think that the Obama administration, which was in office when Snowden released these documents, would have ever conducted a fair and unbiased investigation into him. When Snowden used his programming talents to essentially establish a repository of top-secret internal notes, that is when he chose to turn against the NSA. He created a backup mechanism for all of the data held by the organisation. He went into great length about this in his 2019 book Permanent Record. As he browsed the repository, Snowden claimed he started to realise the extent to which his government was trampling on civil liberties and was cursed by the realisation that all Americans had been reduced to the status of little kids who had to spend the rest of their lives under omniscient parental supervision.

Snowden was accused of both theft of government property and the unlawful disclosure of US national security and intelligence material back in 2013. The maximum sentence for each of the three crimes is ten years. In a separate lawsuit, the Justice Department claimed that Snowden had broken his nondisclosure agreements with the intelligence services and wanted to prevent him from profiting from his biography. The US Court of Appeals determined in 2020 that the NSA's collection of millions of American telephone data was illegal. Following the decision, Snowden stated that he felt vindicated. Before Snowden revealed this deceit, the senior US intelligence officials had publicly stated that the NSA had never intentionally acquired data from private phone records. Officials said that the NSA surveillance programme had been essential in battling homegrown terrorism after the announcement.

There is much discussion about Snowden's action, including whether it was good or bad for America, legal or unlawful, and if he is a hero or a criminal. But there's also a component that you are what your friends make you out to be. Additionally, he recently received citizenship from Russia, demonstrating that he is advancing Russian interests. Citizenship is not granted to anyone who does not advance your national interests. Snowden is undoubtedly advancing Russian objectives, this much is certain. Then, does it imply that Russian interests were to make a highly public character a hero of the Russian people or that Russian interests were merely to cause continued dissatisfaction in the Ukraine-Russia problem at this precise moment? Maybe. Regardless, what we have here is an American citizen who, whether by accident or design, has come to symbolise the might of Russia while also continuing to represent controversy within the United States. However, it is unquestionably heroic what Snowden did in exposing the Patriot Act and the data collection against US citizens. Few individuals in the intelligence community have criticised him for that particular action. It's the fact that, as a backup plan, he also stole several other compartmented secrets that had nothing to do with it. Then he also revealed those secrets, which had nothing to do with the earlier information.

Although many of them are still classified, those were private. We were doing missions and operations that had nothing to do with gathering information for the US government's counterterrorism efforts. Additionally, he stole them, downloaded them, carried them around on a USB drive, and kept using them as chips. If you go back and look at Snowden's past, you'll see that he went around from Hong Kong to Ecuador to Russia, always giving a little bit more. If you will, he used a fresh secret to get his next airline ticket. And it's the part that upsets people because it's what technically turns him into a wanted person in the US. Not that he exposed a programme that was later found to be unlawful, but the fact that he brought this insurance coverage with him put him in breach of the Espionage Act. Only the very tip of the iceberg may exist. He might possess more.

Nobody is aware of what he has received, but they are aware of what he has taken. Only specific programmes were accessible to him by his clearance and legal privileges. He could only download certain apps. Therefore, it is up to the NSA to determine precisely what those programmes were and the extent of the harm. However, no one who is content with being a whistleblower only takes the extra precautions. Nobody other plans ahead for how they'll keep evading arrest while they believe they're acting morally. And I believe that is the aspect that is frequently missed because everyone concentrates on the Patriot Act's scheme for data collection. Nobody takes into consideration the secondary and tertiary courses he also took to help pay for his protection over the past ten years.

It seems a little more like he has a plan and is only thinking about himself. And I recognise the driving force. Everybody wants to protect their own life, freedom, and liberty. Who am I to assert that I wouldn't act similarly if I were in his shoes? He had the intelligence to understand that he couldn't simply whistle and vanish from the world. He was aware that he would need leverage if he needed to move there. But having Russian citizenship makes a difference. Just doing the right thing in the right way won't make you a citizen of Russia. You make a mistake along the route and wind up becoming a Russian citizen.

Snowden has always been regarded by the American government as a wanted man, but now he runs the risk of turning into a combatant because, as a Russian citizen, he is now a foreign actor who could be used against American citizens if he engages in cyberwarfare, digital warfare, or helps their intelligence services do so. He is now a combatant in a major conflict that is genuinely taking place in Europe. The fact that he was given citizenship so soon after the mobilisation of 300 troops and the danger of nuclear reprisal from Russia on Ukraine, as well as the closeness of an American midterm election, makes this seem very much like an information warfare tactic. He didn't give anything new. He didn't do anything novel. They may have been considering giving them citizenship for months. All they had to do was wait for the proper moment. But because it depends on whether he renounced or kept his American citizenship, the threat he faces today is that he shifts from being an exiled fugitive to maybe being a real target.

Is Edward Snowden helping the Russians?

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