Edward Snowden will be our focus in this article. We will determine who he is and why the Russian President is giving him Russian citizenship.
Who is Edward Snowden?
Edward Joseph Snowden is an American born.
He was born on 21st June,1983 to his father who was an American warrant officer in the coast guard by name Lonnie and mother,Elizabeth: a clerk at a US District court.
He is a former computer intelligence consultant. He leaked highly classified information from the famous National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013.
He was an employee and subcontractor of the NSA.
His leaks led to the revelations of several global surveillance programs which was being done by the NSA in collaboration with telecommunication companies and governments from Europe.
He was hired by Booz Allen Hamilton who was an NSA contractor. Edward Snowden had worked with Dell and CIA.
He stated that the reason for his leaks was that he was not happy with the program which he was involved in.
He added that he raise ethical concerns within the program,but those concerns were ignored.
He left the USA for Hong Kong in May,2013 and that was when he released NSA classified documents to journalist.
Why is Edward Snowden being given Russian citizenship?
His Russian citizenship was signed by none other than the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin on Monday.
The 39 year old Snowden has been in exile in Russia since his infamous leaks of classified information of the NSA.
The leaked documents affected mullions of Americans and he is facing espionage charges in the US.
It is not clear why Russian is giving him citizenship at this time.
Anatoliy Kucherena, Snowden’s lawyer had indicated earlier that his client will not be enlisted into the Russian Army as part of their partial mobilization efforts.
