Russian President Vladimir Putin has granted Russian citizenship to former U.S. security contractor Edward Snowden, whose leaks and international flight from U.S. justice nearly a decade ago highlighted top-secret U.S. intelligence-gathering efforts.
Snowden described his revelations as an effort to pull back the curtain on a legally dubious U.S. electronic-surveillance program.
He was among dozens of individuals named in Putin's citizenship decree signed on September 26.
Snowden’s Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, told the Interfax news agency that his client will not be eligible for being called up in a partial mobilization for the war in Ukraine announced last week by Putin, since he had never served in the Russian Army.
After exposing the U.S. surveillance program, Snowden, now 39, fled the United States first to Hong Kong and then to Russia, where he was granted permanent residency.
Snowden is wanted in the United States on espionage charges.
The U.S. State Department said after the Kremlin announcement that it was unaware of any change in Snowden's U.S. citizenship status.
State Department spokesman Ned Price added that the U.S. position on Snowden had not changed.
Snowden said in early November 2020 that he had applied for Russian citizenship while retaining his U.S. citizenship.