Who Is Edward Snowden?

Edward Snowden is a 31 year old US citizen, former Intelligence Community officer and whistleblower. The documents he revealed provided a vital public window into the NSA and its international intelligence partners’ secret mass surveillance programs and capabilities. These revelations generated unprecedented attention around the world on privacy intrusions and digital security, leading to a global debate on the issue.

Snowden worked in various roles within the US Intelligence Community, including serving undercover for the CIA overseas. He most recently worked as an infrastructure analyst at the NSA, through a Booz Allen Hamilton contract, when he left his home and family in Hawaii to blow the whistle in May 2013. After traveling to Hong Kong, Snowden revealed documents to the American public on the NSA's mass surveillance programs, which were shown to be operating without any public oversight and outside the limits of the US Constitution. The US government has charged Snowden with theft of government property, and two further charges under the 1917 Espionage Act. Each charge carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.

With the US pursuing his extradition, Snowden is now in Russia, where he was formally granted three years' residency from 1 August 2014, after a year of temporary asylum in Russia ended on 31st July 2014. Journalists continue to publish documents from Snowden that reveal the secret and unaccountable systems of modern global surveillance.

Quick facts

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Edward Snowden: Sam Adams Award

Snowden talks at the Sam Adams Award award ceremony in October 2013 about the secret surveillance he revealed and its dangers to democracy.

The future special agent was born in 1983 in Elizabeth City. The head of the family served in the North Carolina Coast Guard, the mother devoted herself to jurisprudence. Soon the couple divorced, Edward and sister Jessica stayed with their mother. The boy spent his childhood in his homeland, where he graduated from high school.

In 1999, the family moved to Maryland. The young man became a college student, studied computer science, and was preparing to enter the university in preparatory courses. But poor health prevented him from completing his education in a timely manner, the young man was absent from classes for several months. Education continued remotely via the Internet until 2011, after which Edward received a master's degree from the University of Liverpool.

In 2004, Snowden served in the US military. He dreamed of going to Iraq and "helping people free themselves from oppression." During the exercises, the recruit broke both legs and was demobilized.

Work in the special services

A new stage in Snowden's biography was work in the national security agencies of the state. The young man's career began with the protection of an object at the University of Maryland. He received the highest degree of clearance not only to secret, but also to intelligence information. Then he was transferred to the NSA base in Hawaii as a system administrator.

Edward's further job was the CIA, where he dealt with information security issues. For two years in Geneva, under diplomatic cover, he provided computer security. During this period, Snowden experienced great disappointment in the activities of domestic intelligence agencies, he was especially struck by the ways in which employees recruited and received the necessary information. Since 2009, Snowden began working with consulting companies that worked in conjunction with the NSA, including military contractors.

Information Disclosure

What he saw in Switzerland freed Snowden from illusions and made him think about the benefits of such government actions. The subsequent activity only confirmed his determination and the need to move to action. He hoped that the arrival of President Barack Obama to the White House would improve the situation, but it only got worse.

Snowden began to act decisively in 2013, when he sent an anonymous e-mail to director and film producer Laura Poitras. The letter contained information that the author had important information. The next decisive step was encrypted communication with the Englishman Glenn Greenwald from the Guardian publishing house and the author of articles for the Washington Post Barton Gellman. According to available information, Snowden gave them almost two hundred thousand classified files. From the end of spring, these two publicists began to receive materials from Edward on the PRISM program created by American intelligence. The essence of the state program was the secret collection of information about citizens around the world. Every year, the system intercepted one and a half billion telephone conversations and electronic messages, and also recorded the movements of billions of people who own mobile phones. According to the head of information intelligence, the system worked on completely legal grounds, which allowed monitoring the network traffic of users of some Internet resources. Potentially, any US citizen could be “under the hood”, foreigners were of particular interest. The system made it possible to view mail, photos, listen to video chats and voice messages, as well as draw details of personal life from social networks.

exposure

The National Security Service launched an investigation into the fact that information about the operation of the PRISM system was leaked to the press. After the publication, many companies, in particular Googl, began checking information encryption systems in order to prevent further leakage of information about their users. Previously, this Internet company, like many others, encrypted data only during transmission, and on the servers they were stored unprotected. The American Human Rights Organization has filed several lawsuits in the judiciary to declare such data collection illegal. Soon followed by the reaction of the European Union, that there are also planned measures to protect information.

Technician gave out information about the surveillance of a billion people in dozens of countries. His list included large Internet and cellular communications companies that collaborated with intelligence agencies on a daily basis. Edward justified his actions by the fact that he advocated openness and respect for the legitimate interests of society.

The director of the NSA accused Snowden of having acquired information not only concerning the intelligence of the United States, but also of Great Britain. And the Pentagon has said it has knowledge of many covert military operations. There was a version that Snowden technically could not carry out such an operation alone, there were words about the likely support from Russian intelligence. However, there was no evidence of this, and Edward denied assistance from other states. The accused himself was well aware that he would have to "suffer for his actions." He sacrificed a quiet life in Hawaii in order to oppose the violation of people's freedoms through total surveillance. He did not consider the act heroic and did not put money at the head of everything: "I do not want to live in a world where there is no secret of private life."

Escape abroad

Almost immediately, Snowden left the country and flew to Hong Kong, where he continued to communicate with reporters. Two weeks later, the police showed up at his home in Hawaii. The Washington Post and The Guardian immediately published the resulting material exposing the PRISM system. In Hong Kong, together with reporters, he recorded a video interview, and openly declared himself. Further, Edward planned to leave for Iceland, believing that the country best supports freedom of speech, staying in Hong Kong remained dangerous. Russian diplomats offered him to move to Russia. The country's leadership agreed to grant a three-year residence permit on the condition that he stop his subversive work.

Personal life

In view of the security measures taken, the personal life of the whistleblower remains a secret for a wide range. Before his name became known to the whole world, Edward lived on one of the Hawaiian islands with Lindsey Mills. There is a version that the couple's civil marriage continues and they live together in a rented apartment in Moscow.

Snowden is fond of Asian culture, in particular Japanese. He became interested in anime and martial arts while working at one of the US military bases in Japan. Then the computer specialist began to study the language of the Land of the Rising Sun.

How is life today

At home, Snowden was put on the international wanted list and accused in absentia of espionage and theft of state property. Today, his exact whereabouts are unknown. Russia extended the disgraced agent the right to stay on its territory until 2020. The CIA director is sure that Snowden is obliged to bear an answer before the American court, but he does not make contact with American diplomacy. The security specialist is ready to return to America if he was sure that the proceedings would be open to the general public.

The famous whistleblower does not lead a closed life. His face can often be seen at various conferences on human rights and computer technology. Many countries invite him to give lectures or visit festivals of music and culture. For such video communication, Snowden receives good fees, today their size is close to his earnings in America. But Edward himself does not get tired of repeating that life in Russia is expensive, and since he did not take anything with him when he left his homeland, he has to earn money himself. Even without knowing the language, Snowden has traveled to many parts of Russia over the years, but he still spends most of his time on the global web.

The controversial figure of a technical specialist aroused the interest of game developers, of which he became the hero. The British journalist Greenwald dedicated the book Nowhere to Hide to him, and in 2016 the American director Oliver Stone presented a film about the life of an agent.

Family

Edward Snowden was born on June 21, 1983 in Elizabeth City. Lonnie Snowden, his father, worked (until 2009) in the Coast Guard, and his mother, Elizabeth, was a lawyer (still working in court). In addition to Edward, the family had a daughter, his older sister, whose name is Jessica.

Education of Edward Snowden

In 1999, Edward Snowden moved with his parents to Ellicot City, Maryland. Edward took courses at one of the colleges in order to get the required number of points for obtaining a high school diploma. This document in the United States is required for the possibility of admission to the university. It should be noted that Edward did not complete his college course.

He received his higher education in absentia much later, already in 2011.

Edward Snowden's work for the government

In 2003, the guy went to serve in the army. However, it did not last long. During the exercise, Snowden managed to break both of his legs. After the injury, the medical commission decided to retire the fighter.

After the army, Snowden began his career. He got his first job at the National Security Agency. His tasks included guarding one of the NSA facilities at the University of Maryland.

Despite the formal lack of qualifications, his professional skills in the field of IT allowed him to quickly climb the career ladder in intelligence. In 2007, Snowden took a position with the CIA and went under diplomatic cover to the Swiss capital of Geneva.

According to Snowden himself, it was his close acquaintance with the methods of work of the CIA in Geneva that dissuaded him from the fact that he was doing the right thing. He realized that he was "part of something that does more harm than good."

The young idealist wanted to declassify information about violations of the law by the special services much earlier, but he had high hopes that the situation would change with the election of Obama. However, it soon became clear that the new president was continuing the policies of his predecessors. Edward retires from the CIA and in 2009 begins working for the NSA as an employee of external contractors such as Dell and Booz AllenHamilton.

Exposure on behalf of Edward Snowden: a chronology of events

He began working on the possibility of declassifying information about the crimes of American intelligence services back in January 2013. Then he began to contact Laura Poitras (one of the founders of the Freedom of the Press Foundation), journalist Glenn Greenwald (The Guardian) and publicist Barton Gellman (Washington Post).

Edward Snowden: BBC English interview

On May 20, 2013, Snowden took a leave of absence, citing the need for medical treatment, and flew to Hong Kong. From where did he pass some of the information to trusted journalists. However, there is still some time left before all the cards are revealed.

On June 6, he sent a message to Gelman that the police had come to his home in Hawaii. The Guardian and Washington Post newspapers, at the request of Edward himself, immediately published on their pages information about the PRISM total surveillance system.

On June 9, Edward Snowden met with journalists in Hong Kong. It was then that it became known that it was he who staged a loud exposure. According to Edward himself, he did not plan to hide, because he did not believe that he had done something bad. However, already on June 10, Snowden was on the run.

Ten days later he turned 30 years old. It was on this day that the United States formally charged Snowden. On June 22, an appeal to the Hong Kong authorities followed with a demand to detain and extradite Snowden. To this, the authorities of the Asian country responded with a soft refusal. Formally, Snowden's detention was denied due to inaccurate wording in the extradition request.

Who is behind Edward Snowden?

The next day, information appeared in the media about the arrival of the now disgraced American in Russia. This caused a real stir among the journalists who flooded Sheremetyevo. Without a visa, Snowden was forced to remain in the airport's transit area.

On June 30, he sent an official request to the Russian Foreign Ministry with a request to grant him political asylum. In addition, about 20 similar requests were sent to different countries. A positive response to which was given by Nicaragua, Venezuela and Bolivia.

On August 1, he received a certificate of temporary asylum in Russia for a period of one year.

On October 31, it became known that Snowden was able to find work in Russia - he will be engaged in technical support for the Internet portal.

In November of the same year, he filed a petition for pardon with the authorities of his country.

Personal life of Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden can be described as a romantic and idealist. Journalists who interviewed him in Hong Kong describe him as quiet, good-natured, intelligent and modest.

He explains all his behavior as a responsibility to humanity and believes that everyone needs to act before it is too late.

For a long time, Snowden met with dancer Lindsey Mills. The young couple planned to get married, in the spring of 2013 they lived together in Hawaii, on the island of Waipahu.

The disappearance of Snowden came as a surprise even to his significant other. Lindsey was having a hard time breaking up. She wrote on her blog that after Edward's sudden disappearance, her "world opened and then closed", leaving her "lost at sea without a compass".

Without a doubt, Edward is very worried about his loved ones, worried for their safety. According to him, he can no longer communicate closely with anyone, since the authorities of his country can be cruel towards those people who know him. In October 2013, he managed to meet with his father, who came to Russia to visit his son.

Edward Snowden was born in North Carolina, in the town with the romantic name of Elizabeth City, and spent his childhood and youth in Maryland. There he graduated from high school and entered college, where he studied computer science. Interestingly, Edward did not manage to get a diploma the first time.
In 2003, Snowden joined the US Army, but during an unsuccessful exercise, he received fractures of both legs and was forced to leave the service.

Snowden later got a job with the US National Security Agency. His task was to protect some secret facility located on the territory of the University of Maryland. Presumably it was CASL (Center for Advanced Language Studies). During his work, Snowden received a Top Secret clearance, thanks to which he could have access to many classified materials.
Since March 2007, Snowden has worked at the CIA, in the information security department (he is a system administrator by profession). Until 2009, he worked at the UN under the guise of the US mission and was involved in ensuring the security of computer networks.

However, at one point, Edward became disillusioned with the work of the American intelligence services. He told how in 2007 he witnessed an extremely unpleasant story: CIA officers got a Swiss bank employee drunk, put him behind the wheel and persuaded him to go home. When he was arrested for drunk driving, agents offered him a deal - help in exchange for access to classified bank information. Snowden said that during his time in Geneva, he saw that the activities of his government do more harm to the world than good. Edward hoped that with the coming to power of Barack Obama, the situation would change for the better, but things only got worse.

Edard retired from the CIA and recently rented a house in Hawaii with his girlfriend and worked for Booz Allen Hamilton.

Disclosure of classified information

In January 2012, Snowden wrote several encrypted emails to Free Press Foundation Laura Pryglava, Guardian journalist Glen Greenwald, and Washington Post writer Barton Gellman. He offered to supply them with some secret information, which, in a flash, he did.

On June 6, 2013, the public became aware of the existence of PRISM, a US top secret state program. The program is aimed at extracting secret and not very information on the Internet; companies such as Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!, Facebook and others willingly cooperated with it. In the ranks of the employees of the National Security Agency, complete chaos and hysteria reigned, they quickly turned to the FBI for help in the investigation.

In fact, thanks to Snowden, the Americans learned that they could be massively monitored through email, phone, video chats and personal correspondence on social networks.

Snowden also divulged information about the existence of the British spying program Tempora and that UK intelligence agencies penetrated computers and monitored calls from foreign politicians at the G20 summit (London, 2009).

This and many other declassified information caused enormous damage to the secret services of the United States and Great Britain.

Snowden said that he does not transmit all secret data, but only those that will not harm specific people, but will help make the world a better place for at least a second - people should be aware that their privacy can be penetrated at any moment .

What's next?

After the disclosure of classified data, on May 20, 2013, Snowden took a leave of absence from the NSA, said goodbye to his girlfriend and flew to Hong Kong. On June 6, he told Gellman that his home in Hawaii had been raided - the same day the classified information was published in the Washington Post and The Guardian.

On June 22, the US State Department asked the Hong Kong authorities to extradite him to the United States, but the authorities refused to do this - they were not satisfied with some of the wording in the request.

On June 23, Snowden's adventures with Russia began. There was information that Edward Snowden, along with a representative of Wikileaks Sarah Harrison, arrived at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport. Snowen, who did not have a Russian visa, was not allowed to cross the border with Russia, so he remained in the Sheremetyevo transit zone. According to press reports, Snowden and Harrison did not even get to the airport building, but immediately got into a car with Venezuelan embassy numbers and disappeared in an unknown direction. On the evening of June 23, Snowden asked for political asylum from the authorities of Ecuador.

On June 25, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia had nothing to do with the actions of Edward Snowden, never did and does not do business with him, he did not commit crimes on Russian territory, therefore there are no grounds for his arrest and transfer to US authorities. .

On June 30, Sarah Harrison handed over to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs the documents and Snowden's request to grant him political asylum in Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia would grant asylum to the fugitive saboteur, but on the condition that he stop harming the US government.

Upon his return to the US, Snowden faces a prison term of up to 30 years, while his supporters collect millions of signatures in his defense, and in Hong Kong, petitions are held outside the walls of the US embassy.

Edward Snowden

Edward Joseph Snowden. Born June 21, 1983 in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, USA. American technician and special agent, former employee of the CIA and the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States. Revealed secret information of the NSA regarding the total surveillance of American intelligence agencies around the world.

Father - Lonnie Snowden, served in the US Coast Guard until 2009, lives in Pennsylvania.

Mother - Elizabeth Snowden, a lawyer, works in a federal court in Baltimore.

Parents are divorced. Father remarried to Karen Haberbosch.

Has an older sister, Jessica Snowden, who works at the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, DC.

He spent his childhood in Elizabeth City, lived in Maryland (near the NSA headquarters in Fort Meade).

In 1999, he moved with his family to Ellicot City, Maryland.

He studied computer science at Anne Arundel Community College in Maryland, but was not immediately able to get a diploma: he missed several months of study due to illness, but, as soon as he returned, he managed to pass the General Educational Development tests at a local community college.

From May 7 to September 28, 2004 he served in the US Armed Forces - he was a reservist in the Special Operations Forces. According to him, he joined the army, wanting to take part in the Iraq War because he "felt that, as a human being, he had an obligation to help people free themselves from oppression." He left the service after breaking both legs during the exercises, without completing the course of military training.

He then worked for the NSA, beginning his career guarding a secret facility at the University of Maryland (presumably CASL). He received a Top Secret / Sensitive Compartmented Information level clearance - according to experts, Snowden had access not only to top secret, but also to "Special Intelligence" information containing technical details of the intelligence operations of the United States and its allies.

While working as a system administrator at an NSA base in Hawaii, Snowden convinced 20 to 25 colleagues to give him their usernames and passwords, explaining that he needed it for his job.

After the NSA, he worked in the information security department of the CIA, in particular, from March 2007 to February 2009, he worked under the diplomatic cover of the US Permanent Mission to the UN (Geneva). His work was related to the security of computer networks.

In 2009, Edward quit his job and started working for consulting companies working with the NSA. First at Dell. And later - in the military contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, however, he did not work there for long - less than 3 months until June 2013.

In the process of working for the American intelligence services, Snowden became increasingly disillusioned with their activities. So, according to him, in 2007 he witnessed how the CIA recruited a Swiss bank employee. At first, they deliberately got him drunk and persuaded him to drive and drive home. When he was arrested for drunk driving, CIA agents offered to help him, which allowed him to be recruited to gain access to bank secrets.

“A lot of what I saw in Geneva really took away my illusions about how my government operates and what it brings to the world. I realized that I'm part of something that does a lot more harm than good.", Snowden said. According to him, then for the first time he thought about divulging official secrets, but did not do this for two reasons. Firstly, “Most CIA secrets are about people, not about machines and systems; and I wouldn't feel comfortable divulging something that could endanger someone.".

In one of his interviews, Snowden claimed that he did not vote for the 2008 presidential election, although he believed his campaign promises. During Ron Paul's 2012 presidential campaign, Snowden twice donated $250 to her.

According to him, he hoped for change after the election of Barack Obama. But he soon became convinced that with the advent of Obama, the situation only worsened.

Secret data of Edward Snowden

In January 2013, Snowden finally made the decision to act. He wrote an email to Laura Poitras, an American journalist, film director and film producer, and co-founder of the Freedom of the Press Foundation. At the same time, Snowden did not disclose his name, but said that he had important classified information.

Soon he contacted Glenn Greenwald, a journalist for the English newspaper The Guardian, and Barton Gellman, a publicist who wrote articles for the Washington Post.

Communication took place through encrypted e-mail messages. Snowden wrote that over time his identity would be revealed - by his own will or against it - but until then he asked not to make long quotes from his messages for fear of being identified through semantic analysis. As he suggested, the intelligence services "will almost certainly kill you if they think you are the key person through which to stop the disclosure of this information."

In the second half of May 2013, Snowden began passing key information about the PRISM program to Greenwald and Gellman, but asked not to disclose it immediately.

According to NSA chief Keith Alexander, Snowden handed over 200,000 secret documents to journalists. The status of the disclosed documents turned out to be significantly higher than that of the materials published earlier on WikiLeaks and related to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Revealed the fact of comprehensive surveillance in 60 countries of more than a billion people by the governments of 35 countries.

Snowden disclosed information about the PRISM program, which includes mass surveillance of the negotiations of Americans and foreign citizens via telephone and the Internet. According to him, PRISM allows the Agency to view e-mail, listen to voice and video chats, view photos, videos, track files being sent, and learn other details from social networks. The PRISM program includes Microsoft (Hotmail), Google (Gmail), Yahoo!, Facebook, YouTube, Skype, AOL, Apple, and Paltalk.

Snowden made public secret FISC court ruling dated April 25, 2013. Under this regulation, Verizon, one of the largest US mobile operators, is required to transmit to the NSA "metadata" on a daily basis about all calls made within the United States or between the United States and another country, including the phone numbers of the calling and receiving subscribers, IMEI phones, time and call duration, call location. However, the audio recording of the conversation itself should not be transmitted.

The decree also prohibited all public and private officials involved in the collection of such information from disclosing the very existence of such a decree until 2038. In this regard, journalists subsequently suggested that similar resolutions could be sent to other US cellular operators.

Snowden said that since 2009, US intelligence agencies have illegally penetrated the computer networks of the East Asian fiber-optic network Pacnet, as well as Chinese mobile operators, to gain access to millions of SMS. According to the Hong Kong newspaper Sunday Morning Post, he handed over documents confirming this to the editor.

Snowden divulged information about the British tracking program Tempora, and also said that he does not use the iPhone because of the integrated software that allows you to track the user. Instead of modern smartphones, Snowden prefers a regular mobile phone.

On June 17, The Guardian newspaper, citing Snowden's data, reported that British intelligence agencies monitored computers and intercepted phone calls of foreign politicians and officials who participated in the G20 summit in London in 2009. The secret work was carried out by the UK Government Communications Center and the US National Security Agency. In addition, British intelligence agencies intercepted telephone conversations of the President of Russia during the summit.

Snowden emphasized that he did not disclose all the information known to him: “I carefully studied each document to make sure that its disclosure would serve the legitimate interests of the public ... There are many different documents, the disclosure of which would have great consequences, but I do not pass them on, because my goal is openness, not hurting people.”

This was later confirmed by the director of the NSA, General Keith Alexander, speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in Baltimore. He stated that Snowden had given reporters between 50,000 and 200,000 secret documents that would continue to "come out." But, unlike Snowden, Keith believes that the leaks are deliberately organized in such a way as to cause maximum damage to the NSA and US national interests.

Snowden gained access to electronic intelligence data not only from the United States, but also from Great Britain, and up to 58,000 British secret documents may be at his disposal.

According to a classified Pentagon report, the contents of which became known in January 2014, Snowden stole 1.7 million secret files, most of the documents concern "the vital operations of the US Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force." A few days later, the heads of the intelligence committees of the US House of Representatives and the Senate of the US Congress, Michael Rogers and Dianne Feinstein, suggested that Snowden did not have the technical capabilities to open and steal hundreds of thousands of secret documents on his own and that such large-scale actions, as well as unhindered movement around the world after fleeing from the United States could be carried out with the help of Russian intelligence. An investigation by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation found no evidence that Snowden was assisted by foreign intelligence agencies.

Snowden himself denied allegations that foreign countries were involved in the information leak organized by him.

Escape of Edward Snowden

On May 20, 2013, Snowden said goodbye to his girlfriend for a few weeks and took a leave of absence from the NSA under the pretext of treating his epilepsy. He flew to Hong Kong, where he rented a hotel room and continued email correspondence with reporters. According to , WikiLeaks sent Sarah Harrison to Hong Kong and conducted a special operation to help Snowden get to Hong Kong safely.

On June 6, 2013, an alarmed Snowden told Gellman: "The police visited my home in Hawaii this morning." On the same day, with his permission, The Washington Post and The Guardian published exposés of the PRISM program.

On June 9, 2013, Snowden made the decision to reveal his identity. He invited journalists to Hong Kong for interviews, including Greenwald and Poitras. This video interview and his real name were released by The Guardian at his own request. At the same time, he stated: "I have no intention of hiding who I am, because I know that I did nothing wrong."

After revealing his identity, Snowden continued to send classified materials to journalists. Some former NSA and CIA officials have expressed fears that Snowden may provide classified information to China. Snowden dismissed these suggestions, saying that in that case he would have been in the palace in Beijing long ago.

On June 10, 2013, around noon, Snowden left The Mira Hotel in Hong Kong, where he was hiding from the US authorities. He planned to find political asylum in Iceland, or in another country that supports freedom of speech.

On June 11, 2013, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced Russia's readiness to consider Snowden's application for political asylum, if any. Later, this position of the Russian authorities was confirmed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

On June 21, 2013, on the day of Edward's 30th birthday, he was charged in the United States with embezzlement of state property and disclosure of state secrets.

On June 22, 2013, it became known that the US State Department asked the Hong Kong authorities to detain Snowden and extradite him to the United States. The Hong Kong authorities refused to extradite Snowden, citing incorrect wording in the request. The White House spokesman noted that the US authorities do not believe that the decision to allow Snowden to fly on instead of handing him over to them was made by Hong Kong leaders, not Beijing.

Snowden wanted to seek asylum in Hong Kong, which was supported by the local and Chinese public, but Snowden's Hong Kong lawyer said that the Chinese "intermediary" visited Snowden and let him know that he would not be welcome in China. At the same time, Chinese officials denied any involvement in the case.

As the President of the Russian Federation acknowledged on September 4, 2013, during his stay in Hong Kong, Snowden first met with Russian diplomatic representatives and probed the possibility of moving to Russia.

On July 1, 2013, at a press conference in Moscow, Vladimir Putin announced that Snowden would be able to stay in Russia, but “there is one condition: he must stop his work aimed at harming our American partners, no matter how strange it sounds from my mouth." The next morning, Dmitry Peskov said that the conditions put forward by Putin did not suit Snowden.

On July 2, 2013, the governments of France, Spain, Italy and Portugal, as well as a number of European states, banned the plane of Bolivian President Evo Morales from entering the airspace of their countries after taking off from Moscow, in connection with which the plane was forced to land in Vienna. The ban was due to fears that Snowden was on board the liner. During the inspection of the plane in Vienna by the Austrian security service, it turned out that Snowden was not there.

On July 4, 2013, the general director of the RBC-TV channel, A. Lyubimov, offered Snowden to work as a TV presenter of the show “Snowden. Investigation Technologies” - this work can be performed remotely, including in the transit zone of the airport.

On July 7, 2013, it became known that, having sent out applications for political asylum to more than 20 states, Snowden received three positive responses - from Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

Edward Snowden in Russia

On June 23, 2013, Snowden, accompanied by WikiLeaks spokeswoman Sarah Harrison, arrived at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow. He did not have a Russian visa, and he could only legally be in the airport's transit zone - as expected, several hours before the connecting flight.

According to the media, citing unnamed sources at Sheremetyevo and the passengers of the plane, after landing, the plane was driven to the far parking lot of the airport, Snowden and Harrison were taken out of the plane and put into a car with diplomatic plates that drove up close to the gangway, which then disappeared in an unknown direction, and none of the journalists saw Snowden until his July 12 meeting with human rights activists.

On July 12, 2013, Snowden held a meeting in the Sheremetyevo transit zone, where representatives of the international human rights organizations Amnesty International, Transparency International, Human Rights Watch, the Polish human rights organization Krido Legal, and the UN representative in Russia. In addition, State Duma deputy Vyacheslav Nikonov, member of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation Olga Kostina, Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin, as well as lawyers Anatoly Kucherena, Genrikh Padva and Henry Reznik received invitations.

At the meeting, Snowden read out a prepared statement. In particular, he announced his intention to apply for temporary asylum in Russia, since his safety can now only be ensured if he temporarily remains in Russia, although he plans to settle in Latin America in the future. Two years later, Julian Assange claimed that he had advised Snowden to seek asylum and stay in Russia. According to Assange, in Latin America, Snowden could have been kidnapped or even killed, and Russia is one of the few countries that are not under the influence of the CIA.

Human Rights Watch spokeswoman Tatyana Lokshina said at the meeting that on the way to the airport she received a call from the US Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, who asked her to convey that the United States considers Snowden not a whistleblower, but someone who has broken the law.

In the evening, the situation was discussed by telephone between the presidents of Russia and the United States, Putin and Obama.

Three days later, V. Putin said that the Americans scared everyone and no one wants to take him, “this is such a gift for Christmas,” Putin also expressed the hope that as soon as Snowden has the opportunity to leave Russia, he will immediately use it.

On July 16, 2013, Snowden formally applied to the Federal Migration Service with a request for temporary asylum in Russia.

On July 17, 2013, US Senator Lindsey Graham called for a boycott of the Sochi Olympics in response to Russia granting asylum to Edward Snowden.

On July 24, 2013, it became known that Snowden wants to stay in Russia forever, find a job here and has already begun to learn Russian, as announced after another meeting in the Sheremetyevo transit zone by his lawyer Anatoly Kucherena.

On August 1, 2013, Snowden received a certificate of temporary asylum on the territory of the Russian Federation, issued on July 31, 2013 by the Office of the Federal Migration Service for the Moscow Region and valid until July 31, 2014 (with the possibility of extension). This document gives the right to freely move around the territory of Russia and find employment in any workplace (with the exception of the civil service) without obtaining a work permit. On the same day, Snowden crossed the Russian border, leaving the transit area of ​​Terminal E of Sheremetyevo Airport and leaving, according to lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, in a taxi, accompanied by Sarah Harrison, in an unknown direction. Anatoly Kucherena, showing a copy of the asylum document, said that, for security reasons, the location of Snowden, one of the most wanted people in the world, would not be disclosed.

On August 7, due to the situation with Snowden, US President Obama canceled a meeting scheduled for September with Russian President Putin in Moscow, as well as bilateral talks in St. Petersburg.

On October 10, 2013, his father Lonnie Snowden flew to Russia to meet with Edward. The meeting between father and son was very emotional. On October 16, Snowden Sr. left for the United States.

On December 19, 2013, Putin, at a big press conference at the World Trade Center, said that in operational terms, the Russian special services do not work with Snowden, he himself did not meet with Snowden, he described him as an interesting person, thanks to which a lot turned in the minds of politicians.

While in Russia, Snowden spoke out against the Russian government's policy of restricting the internet and treating gays. “The drive that we are seeing in the Russian government is to control the internet more and more, to control more and more what people see, even part of their personal lives, to decide what is appropriate or inappropriate for how people express their love to each other. to a friend is fundamentally wrong,” said Edward Snowden.

In the spring of 2014, the Russian Association for Electronic Communications, the Notamedia company and the Ekho Moskvy radio station jointly established the first online media award: the Internet Media Awards (IMA). According to them, Snowden personally agreed to the assignment of a new award named after him.

On August 1, 2014, Snowden received a residence permit in Russia for a period of three years. He has a job and also receives help from private individuals; in five years will be able to apply for citizenship of the Russian Federation in the general manner.

In March 2015, he expressed a desire to leave Russia and move to Switzerland.

In March 2016, he announced that he would like to return to the United States.

Edward Snowden quotes:

"The war in Iraq, in which I was assigned to participate, was started because of false premises. The American people were misled. Whether this happened due to bad faith or an error in intelligence, I cannot now say for sure. But I can state that this exposes the problem of excessive trust in the intelligence services, without public discussion of their activities."

"Each of us has a sensor in our pocket that shows where we are, anytime, anywhere. Think about your privacy. Children born today may grow up and not even know what privacy is. They never will not understand what it means to have something that is not recorded or tracked."

"I was looking for leaders, but I realized that leadership is to act first."

“If you willingly sacrificed yourself to be used as a negative example, if you are ready to voluntarily spend your whole life in prison, then how can you sit there for a while, so that later you can come out and speak up for yourself, become even stronger and inspire other people to oppose this policy - are you doing good or bad?"

"Even if you don't do anything wrong, you will be watched and recorded... It allows you to get to the point where you shouldn't do anything wrong, you just end up under suspicion from someone, even on a false accusation and then they can use this system to go back in time and scrutinize every decision you've ever made, every friend you've ever discussed something with, and blame you for it or just take it under suspicion of your innocent life."

"I'm not a spy - that's the real question."

"I am neither a traitor nor a hero. I am an American."

"Your rights matter because you never know when you'll need them."

"I don't want to live in a world where there is no right to privacy and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity."

"A child born today will grow up with a complete lack of understanding of privacy. Children will never know what a moment of privacy means when you are not recorded and your statements are not analyzed. And this is a problem, because privacy matters. Privacy is what allows us determine who we are and who we want to become."

"I don't want to live in a world where everything I say, everything I do, everything I talk to, every expression of creativity, love or friendship is recorded."

"There are things more important than money. If only money motivated me, I would sell these documents to many countries and become very rich."

"Saying that you don't care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying that you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say."

"I didn't want to change society. I wanted to give society a chance to decide if it should change."

"Regardless of the outcome of Brexit, you can see how quickly half of any population can be persuaded to vote against themselves. Good lesson."

Edward Snowden. Interview

Edward Snowden Height: 180 centimeters.

Personal life of Edward Snowden:

Has been in a relationship with Lindsay Mills since 2008.

Lindsey Mills was born in 1985 in Maryland. Professionally engaged in choreography and ballet. She earned money by performing erotic dances. According to Western media, Mills was also a stripper in men's clubs, dancing at the pole. He maintains a blog where he posts his thoughts. Interested in photography.

When Edward Snowden fled the United States in 2013, there were rumors that he abandoned Lindsey - primarily because he did not inform her of his plans (obviously for reasons of secrecy and security).

In an interview with reporters in 2013, Lindsey's father, Jonathan Mills, said that Snowden literally abandoned his daughter to her fate, leaving her without a livelihood. He noted that "Lindsay still cannot get her life back on track and recover from the shock she experienced when her boyfriend told her that he was going on a business trip, and he left forever." The fact that Snowden fled the country and began to publish secret documents of the special services, his girlfriend found out only from news releases: she thought that he had gone on a business trip, Jonathan Mills testified.

However, when Edward settled in Russia, Lindsey Mills came to him in Moscow in July 2014, where she lives with him.

One of Snowden's main hobbies is Japanese and generally East Asian popular culture, including anime, video games and martial arts, which he became interested in while working at a US military base in Japan and learning Japanese. At one time he worked for an American anime company.

He also learned Mandarin Chinese and thought he could make a good career in China or Hong Kong.

On his entry form for the US Armed Forces, he listed "Buddhism" under "religion" because the answer "agnosticism" was "strangely absent" from that form.

According to Spiegel magazine, Snowden practices Buddhism, is a vegetarian, does not drink alcohol or drink coffee. He spends a lot of time at the computer and reading books on the history of Russia.

Edward Snowden in art and cinema:

In the 2014 film Where the Motherland Begins, directed by Rauf Kubaev, the first frames show an episode about a secret flight to Russia to avoid the arrest of ex-CIA officer James Snow, the prototype of which was Edward Snowden. The role of James Snow in the film was played by aspiring Lithuanian actor Arnas Fedaravičius.

In October 2014, the two-hour documentary Citizenfour. The Truth of Snowden" by Laura Poitras, dedicated to Edward Snowden. The tape won several prestigious film awards, including BAFTA, Sputnik and Oscar. In Russia, in cinemas, the film became the highest-grossing non-fiction film of 2015.

On October 5, 2015, Peter Taylor's film Edward Snowden: Spies and the Law premiered on BBC Panorama.

On September 15, 2016 in Russia and on September 16 in the USA, the film "Snowden" was released. The premiere of the film was postponed twice, filming took place in Munich in February-May 2015. To write the script, the American film director acquired the rights to screen the books by lawyer Anatoly Kucherena "Octopus Time" and the journalist of the Guardian newspaper Luke Harding "The Snowden File: The Story of the Most Wanted Man in the World." The role of ex-CIA officer Snowden in this film was played by American actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Edward Snowden took part in the filming of the film, he spent one day of shooting in Moscow.

Based on events from the life of Snowden, a number of games for mobile devices have been created.

In one of the episodes of the American animated series "South Park" - "Go, the government will look after you" - there is a hint of Edward Snowden when Cartman says that he has become an informer and he will have to hide in Russia.

On May 15, 2014, it became known that Sony Pictures Entertainment acquired the film rights to the British journalist Glenn Greenwald's book about Edward Snowden Nowhere to Hide, and intends to make a film about the ex-CIA officer. The film will be produced by Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, who previously worked on James Bond films.

Also in honor of Edward Snowden for his contribution to the protection of freedom of speech, the decapod crayfish Cherax snowden described by German zoologists in 2015 was named.