Snowden was granted permanent residency in 2020, and his lawyers said at the time that he would apply for a Russian passport without giving up his US citizenship.
Snowden’s lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, told state-run news agency RIA Novosti on Monday that Snowden’s wife, Lindsey Mills, is also now applying for Russian citizenship. Mills joined Snowden in Moscow in 2014. They got married in 2017 and had a son.
Kucherena also said that because Snowden had never served in the Russian military, Snowden would not be subject to the partial military mobilization that Putin ordered last week to help with Russia’s flagging war in Ukraine. Putin said only those with previous experience would be summoned to the partial mobilization, although there were widespread reports of summonses going to others, including men arrested in anti-mobilization protests.
White House spokeswoman Karin Jean-Pierre declined to comment on Snowden’s new passport, instead referring questions to prosecutors seeking his extradition. “Therefore, we will direct you to the Department of Justice for any details on this, as I believe there are criminal charges against him,” Jean-Pierre said.
Snowden’s revelations, Published First The Washington Post and Guardian, arguably the biggest security breach in US history. The information he disclosed included top-secret NSA surveillance and extraction of vast amounts of digital information as part of a program known as PRISM.
In 2017, in a documentary produced by American director Oliver Stone, Putin said he did not consider Snowden a “traitor” for leaking government secrets.
“As a former KGB agent, you must have hated what Snowden did with every fiber of your being,” Stone says in the clip.
“Snowden is not a traitor,” Putin replied. “He has not betrayed the interests of his country. He has not transferred any information to any other country that would harm his own country or his own people. The only thing Snowden does, he does publicly.
In 2020, Snowden explained his decision to seek dual citizenship.
“After many years of separation from my parents, my wife and I do not want to be separated from our son. That is why, in this era of pandemics and closed borders, we are applying for dual US-Russian citizenship,” Snowden wrote on Twitter at the time.
“Lindsay and I will remain Americans and raise our son with all of the American values we hold dear — including the freedom to speak his mind. And I look forward to the day I return to the States so the whole family can be reunited,” Snowden said. was added.
