Vladimir Putin granted Russian citizenship to the US whistleblower Edward Snowden. He is one of the 75 foreign citizens by the decree being granted Russian citizenship. Before the notorious fame, he was a former U.S. Security Contractor. Snowden was asked to spy on US citizens. His moral compass was disturbed when his work went off the constitutional laws that protect the privacy of the citizens.
Edward disclosed some of the secret documents about the mass surveillance done by the government of the US upon their people. This brought a lot of frenzy during Obama’s presidency. Since then, he has been in exile in Russia. Know all about Snowden and why people are conflicted about identifying him either as a patriot or as a traitor of the United States.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin Grants Citizenship To Edward Snowden
Russian President Vladimir Putin has granted Russian citizenship to former U.S. contractor, Edward Snowden. The decree signed by the Russian leader on Monday, September 26, 2022, also allowed citizenship to 74 other foreign citizens. He was granted permanent Russian residency in 2020 and said at the time that he planned to apply for Russian citizenship without renouncing his U.S. citizenship.
Edward hasn’t commented on being granted Russian citizenship when he has repeatedly spoken about his desire to return to America, his home country. In Russia, almost every man is considered a reservist until age 65, and officials on Monday stressed that men with dual citizenship are also eligible for the military call-up.
His acceptance in the wake of another possible war Russia is undertaking has created a lot of frenzy in the media. Snowden, however, has never served in the Russian armed forces, so he is not eligible to be mobilized, his lawyer Kucherena stated.
Having previous combat or military service experience has been considered the main criterion in the call-up. The lawyer also told that the former contractor’s wife Lindsay Mills, an American who has been living with him in Russia, will also be applying for a Russian passport. The couple had a child in December 2020.
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Why Can’t Snowden Return To America?
After leaking the U.S. government surveillance programs in 2013, Snowden started living as an exile in Russia. He always stated that it was not his intention to be a citizen of Russia. The whistleblower also proclaimed that his home is always America and he would always try to get back to his country. In contradiction to these statements, he however settled in Russia.
Back in 2013, he was stranded at Moscow airport for 40 days. The former US contractor said that he wanted to go to a safe place in Ecuador but all of his entries were blocked by the US government. He revealed that whenever there was an ounce of hope to get into another country, the US embassy would interfere.
Snowden told in an interview that he applied to more than 13 countries. Whenever he was close to getting acceptance into any country, the US officials would interfere. The US officials would say to the other embassies that they were free to accept whoever they would want into their country. However, if they accept Snowden, then they might face “consequences”.
Although the countries in which he applied for Visa were happy to welcome him, they eventually let him down. The possible “consequences” they might have to face from the US government scared them to accept the whistleblower. He repeatedly told in many interviews that the government would not let him take a fair trial. Hence, to escape prosecution in the US, the former contractor with the U.S. National Security Agency sought refuge in Russia.
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Why American Government Is Not Allowing A Fair Trial To Edward Snowden?
A lawyer who had been a legal adviser to two high-profile whistleblowers – Drake, and Kiriakou- described the trial as a “shadowy proceeding“. Snowden is charged under an arcane World War I law called the Espionage Act of 1917 – just like the aforementioned whistleblowers – for revealing information about surveillance, torture, and war crimes.
Under the Espionage Act, no prosecution of a non-spy can be fair or just. The 1917 law, enacted shortly after the U.S. entered World War I, was intended to apply to spies, not modern-day whistleblowers accused of mishandling allegedly classified information. The law was written 35 years before the word “classification” entered the government’s lexicon.
The Espionage Act effectively hinders a person from defending himself before a jury in an open court. This means that Snowden cannot appeal to the jury to take into account his intention on why he chose to leak these documents. In this way, the trial can easily conclude that Snowden is guilty without hearing his plea. This has already happened to three other whistleblowers and the lawyer pointed out that the same “unfair treatment” can be expected to happen to him too.
The motive and the intent of the whistleblower is made irrelevant. The Espionage Act has morphed into a strict liability law, which means the government does not have to show the defendant had felonious intent. There is no whistleblower defense, meaning the public value of the material disclosed does not matter at all.
Can Snowden Be Prosecuted Under The Espionage Act?
The controversy surrounding Snowden’s dissemination of NSA information continues. The members of Congress, journalists, and advocacy groups all mount on a point that Snowden should turn himself in and be righted at trial.
Even Snowden seems to agree that he is guilty and ready to take a trial only if it’s fair. As established, the whistleblower is charged under the Espionage Act, which was mandated for spies like Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen.
The spies sold secrets to enemies for profit. However, Snowden did not sell secrets, rather, he revealed them to the public. “But thanks to vague and overbroad language, the law has criminalized a wide range of activities that are central to the news-reporting process and bear little or no resemblance to classic espionage,” a lawyer stated.
He also added, “There are a dozen other criminal laws that could be applied to people accused of mishandling classified information. The government’s choice of the Espionage Act says more about its punitive powers than it does about the national-security interests the law was created to protect.”
Takeaways From Snowden’s Interview With John Oliver
John Oliver, the Emmy-winning late-night show host, interviewed Edward Snowden in 2015. In an episode dedicated to helping viewers understand government surveillance and national security, Oliver grilled Snowden straight from the latter’s exile in Moscow.
In his own style of “investigative comedy”, Oliver asked Snowden about everything from Hot Pockets to racy photos to the exact scope of the NSA’s surveillance on the American people. In the interview, he showed Snowden the apathy of American citizens towards this issue. Just by looking at Snowden’s face, it was apparent that he was taken aback by this revelation.
Snowden tried to explain it in layman’s terms: “The NSA has the greatest surveillance capabilities that we’ve ever seen in history,” he told Oliver. “Now what they will argue is that they don’t use this for nefarious purposes against American citizens. In some ways, that’s true,” he said.
“But the real problem is that they’re using these capabilities to make us vulnerable to them, and then saying, ‘Well, I have a gun pointed at your head. I’m not going to pull the trigger. Trust me.’ I’m not saying this is an easy conversation,” Oliver said, “but we have to have it.” He later pointed out that everything Snowden has done and said will matter only if “we have this conversation properly.”
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How Oliver Made Snowden Break Down The Complicated Issue In Laymen Terms
The issue at hand about mass surveillance garnered very little attention from the people. So, Oliver took it to his liberty, to talk about surveillance and how to make the American public understand and care about such abstruse subject matter.
Oliver had Snowden explain the NSA’s various surveillance programs through the lens of something the average person would not want the government meddling with: revealing personal photos. Oliver asked Snowden, “Can the government secretly access Americans’ naked selfies?”
The answer is “yes”. “If you have your email somewhere like Gmail, hosted on a server overseas or transferred overseas or at anytime crosses outside the borders of the United States, your junk ends up in the database,” Snowden said.
“Even if you send it to somebody within the United States, your wholly domestic communication between you and your wife can go from New York to London and back and get caught up in the database,” he added.
Oliver, then asked Snowden if Americans should therefore stop taking racy photos and sending them via the Internet. Snowden sternly said, “Absolutely not. You shouldn’t change your behavior because a government agency somewhere is doing the wrong thing,” Snowden said. “If we sacrifice our values because we’re afraid, we don’t care about those values very much.”
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Is Snowden A Traitor Or A Patriot?
Although many still dwindle to identify Snowden as a patriot or a traitor, Snowden is clear on who he is. He has classified himself as a patriot who serves the public. Countless times, he has said that only when he noticed unconstitutional actions going on inside NSA, he took it to his liberty to reveal it to the public.
“Being a patriot means knowing when to protect your country, knowing when to protect your Constitution, knowing when to protect your countrymen from the — the violations of and encroachments of adversaries,” he said.
His intent as he proclaims was for the welfare of the privacy of the people of the United States. However, there are still many who do not side with him. One among them is Secretary of the State John Kerry.
During a live interview, he made his opinion clear. He said, “Edward Snowden is a coward, he is a traitor, and he has betrayed his country.” However, many support Edward on Twitter. One user wrote, “Edward Snowden is a #patriot. John Kerry is a #traitor as are all politicians like him.”
Whilst another user called Snowden a traitor, “Snowden is a #traitor for releasing secrets & ways US has been collecting data to keep us safe from terrorists. Prison for life for him!”
Edward Snowden is a #patriot. John Kerry is a #traitor as are all politicians like him.
— Michael Duchemin (@michaelduchemin) May 29, 2014
Snowden is a #traitor for releasing secrets & ways US has been collecting data to keep us safe from terrorists. Prison for life for him!
— Candy Cottage (@Foxtippy1) May 29, 2014
So many conflicting feelings on #InsideSnowden. Good for Americans to be aware but gov. deserves secrecy on some topics. #Patriot #Traitor
— Haley✨ (@haleyspampsavre) May 29, 2014
Everything about #EdwardSnowden is calculated, intelligent, careful, caring, soulful. He cares about USA. #patriot #InsideSnowden @NBCNews
— Spencer (@theyrespencer) May 29, 2014
