Edward Snowden gets Russian passport after swearing oath of allegiance

[Torrain]

Edward Snowden gets Russian passport after swearing oath of allegiance
Edward Snowden has received a Russian passport after swearing an oath of allegiance to the country that has sheltered him from US authorities since 2013, his lawyer has said.

Snowden, 39, a former intelligence contractor who leaked secret files that were reported on by the Guardian, was granted Russian citizenship in an order signed by Vladimir Putin in September.

On Friday, Snowden’s lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, said Snowden had received his passport. “He took the oath,” he said.

The decision has come at an extremely inauspicious moment, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent descent into international isolation. Russia has mobilised its population for war and threatened to use nuclear weapons in order to defend territory it has occupied in Ukraine.

Kucherena said on Friday that Snowden was “happy” and that Russian citizenship would prevent him from being extradited.

[Bismarck]

And yet Americans still idolize this traitor.

[PSOL]

This is just standard procedure to get a Russian VISA and move around freely

Snowden is free and has done his duty to the wider public, I hope he and his family live comfortably on what his actions have done for the public.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

It's gonna be so funny when he gets drafted.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Can't wait to see him shipped to Bakhmut.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

And yet Americans still idolize this traitor.

Not so much anymore. Chelsea Manning, who did her time and didn't haul ass to an adversarial nation, is a far more respected whistleblower than the likes of Snowden or Assange.

[Mercenary]

Meh, you gotta do what you gotta do to save yourself at some point. I cannot blame him for going to a different crap country when his own crap country wants him dead because he exposes their injustices.

Death or living in a semi-normal life in an authoritarian country?

[Not Me, Us]

Snowden should have been pardoned a long time ago. I really can't understand why anyone would have a problem with him exposing the government's surveillance of its own citizens.

[Santander]

And yet Americans still idolize this traitor.

Not so much anymore. Chelsea Manning, who did her time and didn't haul ass to an adversarial nation, is a far more respected whistleblower than the likes of Snowden or Assange.

Yeah, no... Remember the ungrateful and petulant outbursts Manning made against Obama? No respect there.

[President Johnson]

Disgusting.

[Enduro]

I don't know how to feel about this. Not too crazy about his new allegiance, but I guess I can understand why.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Meh, you gotta do what you gotta do to save yourself at some point. I cannot blame him for going to a different crap country when his own crap country wants him dead because he exposes their injustices.

Death or living in a semi-normal life in an authoritarian country?

He was looking at 30 years, max, not death. And that would have been if he'd been found guilty on all charges and ordered to serve them consecutively. And the case against him would have been far from an easy one for the governemnt to prove. And, that the 9th Circuit found at least one of the surveillance programs he exposed to be illegal would likely have helped him. Had he remained to "face the music" as other whistleblowers have done, he would be a very sympathetic figure.

Instead, he fled to, and now lives comfortably in, an oppressive, hostile, autocratic state (that arguably benefitted  greatly from his actions). It is not a good look.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Meh, you gotta do what you gotta do to save yourself at some point. I cannot blame him for going to a different crap country when his own crap country wants him dead because he exposes their injustices.

Death or living in a semi-normal life in an authoritarian country?

He was looking at 30 years, max, not death. And that would have been if he'd been found guilty on all charges and ordered to serve them consecutively. And the case against him would have been far from an easy one for the governemnt to prove. And, that the 9th Circuit found at least one of the surveillance programs he exposed to be illegal would likely have helped him. Had he remained to "face the music" as other whistleblowers have done, he would be a very sympathetic figure.

Instead, he fled to, and now lives comfortably in, an oppressive, hostile, autocratic state (that arguably benefitted  greatly from his actions). It is not a good look.

I can't imagine you facing 30 years in prison in the manner you expect Edward Snowden to.  Not that I'd blame you.  I would also point out that our relations with Russia were not what they are now when Snowden first fled there.

The people who were deemed crackpots in the 1960s for decrying how Big Brother would someday be able to monitor our every move if we kept giving the central government more power have been proven right.  Just what exactly is "private" nowadays?  Not very much, I would think.  To the degree that Snowden sought to warn us as to the degree to which the Surveillance State had established itself, I am appreciative.  I'm less appreciative of his Russian citizenship, but the issues he has raised are legitimate, and have not been addressed at all by either party in Congress, to be frank.

[7,052,770]

The fact that Snowden is now a citizen of a country that is far worse on the issue he claims to care about the most kinda cuts into his credibility, doesn't it?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

The fact that Snowden is now a citizen of a country that is far worse on the issue he claims to care about the most kinda cuts into his credibility, doesn't it?

At least he left China and the US forced down that plane with the Bolivian President because we thought he might be on it. So it wasn't safe for him to travel to another country.

[7,052,770]

The fact that Snowden is now a citizen of a country that is far worse on the issue he claims to care about the most kinda cuts into his credibility, doesn't it?

At least he left China and the US forced down that plane with the Bolivian President because we thought he might be on it. So it wasn't safe for him to travel to another country.

That was what, 9 years ago?

[PSOL]

The fact that Snowden is now a citizen of a country that is far worse on the issue he claims to care about the most kinda cuts into his credibility, doesn't it?

He’s a fighter for freedom there too

In response, he made this for Russian human rights activists

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

The fact that Snowden is now a citizen of a country that is far worse on the issue he claims to care about the most kinda cuts into his credibility, doesn't it?

He’s a fighter for freedom there too

In response, he made this for Russian human rights activists

And Wikileaks also calls out mass surveillance even if it's Russia doing it.

https://wikileaks.org/spyfiles/russia/