MADRID, 3 Dec. (PRESS EUROPE) –
Former US Security Agency (NSA) analyst Edward Snowden recalled that he was in Russia – a country that just gave him his new Russian passport – because the White House ordered his passport cancelled.
“I’m in Russia because the White House intentionally canceled my passport to trap me here,” Snowden recalled in a message posted on Twitter.
In addition, Snowden highlighted that he forced a Bolivian diplomatic plane to land in Austria to try to arrest him in 2013. “They landed the Bolivian president’s diplomatic plane to prevent me from leaving and continue to this day to interfere with my freedom of movement In case it wasn’t clear,” he stressed.
Snowden refers to a 2013 incident in which the Bolivian presidential plane was forced to land in Austria after being denied right-of-way by other European countries. The plane left Russia and would have headed for Cuba with Snowden on board, a point which was ultimately denied.
Snowden received a Russian passport, his lawyer, Anatoli Kucherena, confirmed on Friday, after Russian President Vladimir Putin granted him citizenship in September.
“Edward yesterday received a passport of a Russian citizen and was sworn in line with the law,” Kucherena, a lawyer, told Russia’s Interfax news agency. “He is grateful to Russia for receiving citizenship and for being a full-fledged Russian citizen,” he added.
In this sense, he observed that “the most important thing is that, according to the Russian Constitution, he cannot be extradited to a foreign country”, revealing that Snowden’s wife has also started the procedures to obtain Russian citizenship. “I think the process won’t last long,” she said.
In September, Putin granted citizenship to Snowden, who is wanted by US justice for having leaked extensive information on the National Security Agency (NSA) to Wikileaks. Snowden filed an application in November 2020 with his wife, Lindsay Mills, also an American, to receive Russian citizenship.
Snowden is wanted by United States Justices after he leaked several secret documents in 2013 that revealed various espionage techniques employed by the national security agency, including illegal wiretapping of international political leaders.
Once he fled the United States, his first destination was Hong Kong, although he ended up in Russia. In 2014 he obtained his first residence permit which, years later, will be extended indefinitely. That same year, one of his attorneys said that Snowden would be willing to return to American soil “under certain conditions” and acknowledged that “negotiations” were underway to that end.
