Russia Extends Edward Snowden's Asylum To 2020, To Offer Citizenship Next Year (cnn.com)

Whistleblower and former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden has been allowed to remain in Russia for another three years and will next year qualify to apply for Russian citizenship. From a report on CNN: Edward Snowden's leave to remain in Russia has been extended until 2020, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has confirmed to CNN. Snowden, a former US National Security Agency contractor, sought asylum in Russia in June 2013 after leaking volumes of information on American intelligence and surveillance operations to the media. On Tuesday, Zakharova announced an extension of a "couple of years" in a Facebook post that criticized former CIA acting director Michael Morell for an opinion piece he wrote suggesting that Russian President Vladimir Putin should consider returning Snowden to the United States as "the perfect inauguration gift" to President-elect Donald Trump. Snowden settled in Moscow after initially traveling to Hong Kong following his 2013 public disclosure of classified information. The Russian government granted him asylum soon after. In August 2014, Snowden received a three-year extension to his leave to remain in Russia. That extension was due to expire this year.

Comments

Embarrassing traitor paraded around, news at 11

[Anonymous Coward]

Putin will wave Snowden around like a puppet as long as he's useful. He'll vanish the nanosecond he is no longer.

Russia will never let him go home. A pardon is a death sentence.

Down with Putin - Down with Trump

[Anonymous Coward]

Donald Trump's treasonous collaboration with Russia on Watergate style crimes means Orange Hitler will be seeking asylum in his puppet master's country too.

I know Republicans hate America, but did you really have to pick the world's biggest traitor and scam artist?

I feel like you could have killed enough Americans by just repealing the affordable care act.

Why did you have to turn the White House over to an agent of a hostile foreign government on top of all that?

Do you traitors have no shame???

Schizophrenic Slashdot Reaction Time!

[CajunArson]

Last year's reaction: OMG SNOWDEN I NEED TO CHANGE MY PANTS NOW!

This year's reaction: OMG NAZI RUSSIANS MIND-CONTROLLED US TO VOTE FOR TRUMP! WIKILEAKS IS EVIL*!

* But commuting Manning's sentence is great or something, so leaking sensitive information that got people in Afghanistan killed? All good as long as it's politically damaging to nazi-Bush.

Leaking factual information from the DNC that got nobody killed and that proved the DNC directly helped Trump get elected by interfering with the Republican primaries? TREASON! EXECUTE TRUMP SUPPORTERS NOW!

Re:Schizophrenic Slashdot Reaction Time!

[CajunArson]

The first sentence of that story shows how ignorant you are of how the world works.

The Guardian -- not exactly an unbiased source -- claims that at trial Manning's defense team pretended that nobody got killed due to the leaks because no specific individual that was specifically named in the leaks was proven to have been killed specifically because of the leaks.

Let's assume that the one-sided story presented by Manning's defense at trial -- yes, he received a fair trial, more than Trump is receiving in the press -- is true: So the fuck what. It's well documented that the Taliban read the leaks and went around indiscriminately killing people who they though fit the profile of collaborators. The fact that the Taliban didn't get the right guy doesn't mean that those Afghans weren't murdered because Manning was an attention-seeking sociopath.

fake news from cnn

[fredan]

sought asylum in Russia in June 2013 after leaking volumes of information on American intelligence and surveillance operations to the media.

No he didn't seek asylum in Russia after he leaked volumes of information to media. He did seek asylum due to the fact that the US canceled he's passport.