Edward Snowden is a permanent resident and naturalized citizen of Russia, living in Moscow with his wife and two sons. Granted citizenship by President Vladimir Putin in 2022, he remains in exile to avoid prosecution in the US under the Espionage Act. Snowden continues to criticize Russian policy while working in IT and presiding over the Freedom of the Press Foundation
the usa literally trapped him in russia while he was flying back to the us, by cancelling his passport. Also putin sees him as a useful propaganda tool as well.
They’ll probably give him some leeway since they’d rather have him living there as a fuck you to the USA and constant reminder of how fucked up the USA is as well.
More valuable openly criticizing the US. He’s American so it is “expected” for him to have Western values. The fact that he hides from the US, but lives in RU with issues is a political win for Putin.
That’s what happens when the US waits to cancel your passport until you are stuck in the transit hub of a Russian airport waiting for your next flight out of the country.
iIRC it took like 12 months until Russia granted Snowden asylum and he could leave the airport hub.
Russia was under no obligation to keep Snowden instead of letting him continue to Ecuador. Putin just wanted to use him as a bargaining chip with the U.S., but the U.S. understood that all his documents were already public, so Putin hasn’t been able to play that card well yet.
Which itself is based on the true story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri who lived in Terminal 1 of Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, France, from 1988 to 2006.
It is uncommon, but passports being invalidated during travel does happen.
He actually sent his passport away to Belgium while en route to London, refused to sign a new passport with his real name, demanding one with the name Sir Alfred and no mention of his Iranian citizenship, and returned to the airport even after he had left it once to go to the hospital.
Sounds to me like he got used to his life there, with the fame and not needing to work.
He also made $200k from the filming rights.
Belgium isn’t even mentioned on the Wikipedia page. And France is mentioned specifically from an interview in 2019 where Snowden said he had requested asylum in 2013, but it was denied under President Hollande. A second request later was received favorably by Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet under President Macron, but no other members of the French government expressed support. That’s not at all refusing help from either of them. In fact there are multiple sections in there about his asylum requests to dozens of countries.
Ah you are right. I seem to have gotten it mixed up with the initial 1 year refugee status he was granted, before the first 3 year temporary residency permit.
Either way, the US tried to prevent his leaving Hong Kong but however they submitted it, their request didn’t comply with Hong Kong law so there was no legal basis for them to detain him.
Four countries had offered Snowden permanent asylum: Ecuador, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Venezuela. No direct flights between Moscow and Venezuela, Bolivia, or Nicaragua existed, however, and the U.S. pressured countries along his route to hand him over. His intended destination was Ecuador, but his passport being revoked while he was in flight from Hong Kong meant he was stuck in Russia.
He had given all copies of the evidence he had to journalists in Hong Kong reporting on American issues, specifically so when travelling through Russia they would have nothing to leverage.
Snowden said in July 2013 that he decided to bid for asylum in Russia because he felt there was no safe way to reach Latin America.
Thanks for the update. I didn’t know he had children, but I guess life moves on. I still think it is absolutely shameful that Europe wasn’t and isn’t able to allow Snowden to live in Europe.
The Europeans bucking the US would require them to not be vassals. But right now we see Germany trying to placate Trump and while France does a lot of saber rattling, they also aren’t going specifically against the US. Only Spain is currently defying the US, but only insofar that they don’t allow the US to conduct its war of choice with Iran from spanish soil. They are not opposing the US on anything that isn’t as clear cut morally. That’s a lot of words for saying yes, unfortunately, Europe, and Germany above all, is too cowardly to defend what is right against the US. The only opposition allowed against the US is bureaucratic opposition. And even that is failing.
Sounds ok except for living in Russia.
Edward Snowden is a permanent resident and naturalized citizen of Russia, living in Moscow with his wife and two sons. Granted citizenship by President Vladimir Putin in 2022, he remains in exile to avoid prosecution in the US under the Espionage Act. Snowden continues to criticize Russian policy while working in IT and presiding over the Freedom of the Press Foundation
the usa literally trapped him in russia while he was flying back to the us, by cancelling his passport. Also putin sees him as a useful propaganda tool as well.
Living in Russia and criticizing russian policy sounds like how those intrusive thoughts about jumping from windows get into your head…
They’ll probably give him some leeway since they’d rather have him living there as a fuck you to the USA and constant reminder of how fucked up the USA is as well.
Snowden should get a fair trial but the US won’t let him argue that his whistleblowing was for the greater good and outweighs state secrecy clauses
I’m totally showing my ignorance here but I’m surprised they let him do that
More valuable openly criticizing the US. He’s American so it is “expected” for him to have Western values. The fact that he hides from the US, but lives in RU with issues is a political win for Putin.
They actually have parties in Russia.
Not the Blue/Red MAGA circlejerk
And anybody who disparages Putin gets poisoned. It’s such a wonderful system, right?
yawn, sure
That’s what happens when the US waits to cancel your passport until you are stuck in the transit hub of a Russian airport waiting for your next flight out of the country.
iIRC it took like 12 months until Russia granted Snowden asylum and he could leave the airport hub.
It was revoked before he left China. https://apnews.com/general-news-587786e6e63b4dc2b70c471606d7f584
That didn’t stop China from ignoring his asylum request following his release of documentation of hacked Chinese systems and kicking him out of the country because whether you have a valid passport doesn’t matter for geopolitical issues. https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1259508/edward-snowden-us-government-has-been-hacking-hong-kong-and-china
Russia was under no obligation to keep Snowden instead of letting him continue to Ecuador. Putin just wanted to use him as a bargaining chip with the U.S., but the U.S. understood that all his documents were already public, so Putin hasn’t been able to play that card well yet.
Like that Tom Hanks movie! I think it’s called The Terminal
Which itself is based on the true story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri who lived in Terminal 1 of Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, France, from 1988 to 2006.
It is uncommon, but passports being invalidated during travel does happen.
Wikipedia says this guy was mostly responsible for what happened to him. He allegedly lost his passport, and refused any help from France and Belgium.
He actually sent his passport away to Belgium while en route to London, refused to sign a new passport with his real name, demanding one with the name Sir Alfred and no mention of his Iranian citizenship, and returned to the airport even after he had left it once to go to the hospital.
Sounds to me like he got used to his life there, with the fame and not needing to work.
He also made $200k from the filming rights.
No idea what the fuck you’re reading, because the Wikipedia page doesn’t seem to say any of that…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden
Belgium isn’t even mentioned on the Wikipedia page. And France is mentioned specifically from an interview in 2019 where Snowden said he had requested asylum in 2013, but it was denied under President Hollande. A second request later was received favorably by Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet under President Macron, but no other members of the French government expressed support. That’s not at all refusing help from either of them. In fact there are multiple sections in there about his asylum requests to dozens of countries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden#Flight_from_the_United_States
In fact, the Wikipedia page goes pretty in depth about his intended travel out of Hong Kong. The US revoked his passport, it wasn’t lost.
His plans upon leaving Hong Kong never had anything to do with US allies, it very specifically avoided them because of US leverage.
So where, on Wikipedia, are you reading the exact opposite of what the Wikipedia page says?
That’s a lot of words for someone with poor reading comprehension skills
I’m pretty sure, the comment of Something Burger was related to Mehran Karimi Nasseri
Little aggressive, but in your defense, pronouns with limited context can be difficult sometimes.
Unless this is supposed to be a shit post, in which case, bravo.
40 days but that’s still quite some
Ah you are right. I seem to have gotten it mixed up with the initial 1 year refugee status he was granted, before the first 3 year temporary residency permit.
Either way, the US tried to prevent his leaving Hong Kong but however they submitted it, their request didn’t comply with Hong Kong law so there was no legal basis for them to detain him.
Four countries had offered Snowden permanent asylum: Ecuador, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Venezuela. No direct flights between Moscow and Venezuela, Bolivia, or Nicaragua existed, however, and the U.S. pressured countries along his route to hand him over. His intended destination was Ecuador, but his passport being revoked while he was in flight from Hong Kong meant he was stuck in Russia.
He had given all copies of the evidence he had to journalists in Hong Kong reporting on American issues, specifically so when travelling through Russia they would have nothing to leverage.
Snowden said in July 2013 that he decided to bid for asylum in Russia because he felt there was no safe way to reach Latin America.
Considering they grounded Evo Morales’ plane because they thought he was on it, I’d say that’s a fair bet.
Thanks for the update. I didn’t know he had children, but I guess life moves on. I still think it is absolutely shameful that Europe wasn’t and isn’t able to allow Snowden to live in Europe.
They’re vassals to the empire. He wouldn’t be safe there anyway
The Europeans bucking the US would require them to not be vassals. But right now we see Germany trying to placate Trump and while France does a lot of saber rattling, they also aren’t going specifically against the US. Only Spain is currently defying the US, but only insofar that they don’t allow the US to conduct its war of choice with Iran from spanish soil. They are not opposing the US on anything that isn’t as clear cut morally. That’s a lot of words for saying yes, unfortunately, Europe, and Germany above all, is too cowardly to defend what is right against the US. The only opposition allowed against the US is bureaucratic opposition. And even that is failing.