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Edward Snowden is an American technical assistant, known throughout the world for the publication of a number of sensational revelations by the US intelligence agencies regarding mass surveillance of citizens. Since 2013, his name has appeared on the front pages of the media, as information about violations by the Agency national security(NSA) of the rights and freedoms of millions of Americans and Europeans struck the world community.
AT recent times Snowden lives in Russia, where he was granted political asylum, as the United States declared him international wanted list, charged in absentia with embezzlement and disclosure state secret which is regarded as a threat to the security of the country.
Childhood and youth
Edward Snowden was born on June 21, 1983 in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. His parents, Coast Guard Lonnie and lawyer Elizabeth Snowden, are divorced. In the family, Edward is youngest child, he has elder sister Jessica, who works as a lawyer at the Federal Judicial Center in Washington.
Snowden's childhood and youth were spent in his hometown, where the future employee of the CIA and the US NSA received his secondary education. In 1999, the Snowden family moved to Maryland. There, Edward entered Ann Arundel College, where he took preparatory courses for university entrance.
However, due to health reasons, he never completed the course of study - he had to continue his studies remotely, which did not prevent Snowden from receiving a master's degree from the University of Liverpool in 2011.
In 2004, Edward Snowden went to serve in the US Armed Forces as a reservist, from where he was commissioned a few months after receiving a serious injury to both legs. From that moment on, Snowden's biography was directly related to computer science, programming and IT technologies, in which the guy showed professionalism and special talent, despite the lack of formal confirmation of the specialist's qualifications.
Service in the CIA
Edward Snowden's career climb was confident and swift. The specialist received his first professional skills at the NSA, working in the security structure of a secret facility at the University of Maryland. A few years later, Snowden was hired by the CIA and sent to Geneva under diplomatic cover as the US permanent representative to the UN. There, his responsibilities included the implementation of the security of computer networks. According to Edward, his work in Switzerland opened his eyes to the fact that he is a special link in the US intelligence services, bringing people more harm than good.
In 2009, the programmer quit the CIA and began working for NSA-affiliated consulting firms Dell and Booz Allen Hamilton as an outside contractor.
Snowden did not approve of the activities of the US National Security Agency, in the future, freeing the American public from illusions about the lawful actions of the government in relation to the whole world. In this regard, in 2013, the NSA special agent decided to act according to the dictates of his heart and reveal to people secret information that exposes American intelligence services in mass surveillance of people.
Snowden has repeatedly noted that he wanted to declassify the illegal actions of the NSA and the CIA back in 2008, but he hoped that with the coming to power, the situation in the US secret services would change. It soon became obvious to the programmer that new president The United States continues the policy of its predecessors and does not intend to interfere with the activities of "spies".
Revelations and prosecutions
Snowden's work to declassify the crimes of American intelligence agencies started in 2013. Then the former CIA and NSA agent contacted film producer Laura Poitras, American journalist Glenn Greenwald and publicist Barton Gellman, whom he said that he was ready to provide classified information.
Snowden's communication took place through encrypted e-mail messages, through which the IT specialist leaked 200,000 secret documents to journalists. Their status of secrecy exceeded previously published materials on WikiLeaks regarding the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. After that, a scandal erupted, and the announced compromising evidence received an effect in the press. thermonuclear bomb. In the future, the founder of WikiLeaks, will declare that thanks to the international non-profit organization, Snowden remains at large.
Edward Snowden's revelations contained facts about US surveillance of the population in 60 countries of the world and 35 government departments throughout Europe. The programmer declassified information about the PRISM program, with the help of which special agents conducted mass surveillance of the negotiations between Americans and foreign citizens via the Internet and mobile communications.
According to Edward, the PRISM program allowed the NSA to eavesdrop on voice and video chats, view email and photos, track files being sent, and own all the information of social network users. A large number of popular services participated in this program: Microsoft (Hotmail), Facebook, Google (Gmail), Skype, Yahoo!, AOL, YouTube, Apple and Paltalk.
Also sensational exposure of Snowden was the secret ruling of the FISC court, according to which the largest operator cellular communication Verizon is required to provide the NSA with metadata for all calls made within the United States on a daily basis. Against the background of this decision, journalists suggested that other American cellular operators could also be involved in such obligations.
In addition, thanks to Snowden, it became known about the existence of the Tempora tracking program, which intercepts Internet traffic and telephone conversations, and about the integrated iPhone software that allows you to monitor user actions.
One of the most resonant revelations of Snowden was the disclosure of the fact that US intelligence agents intercepted telephone conversations of foreign politicians and officials who participated in the G20 summit, held in 2009 in London. Among those affected by misconduct The US NSA has included many famous politicians from all over the world.
According to the Pentagon, Snowden is in possession of 1.7 million classified documents, most of which concern vital information about the operations of the US army and navy, marines and air force. This information, according to journalists, will be gradually disclosed in order to cause damage national interest US and NSA.
After deciding to reveal his identity, Edward Snowden, realizing that he would have to pay dearly for this act, went on the run.
At first, the programmer was hiding in Hong Kong, where he planned to obtain political asylum. After the official accusation by the American authorities of embezzlement and disclosure of secret state secrets, which happened on the day of Edward's 30th birthday, the spy appeared in Moscow at the Sheremetyevo airport for unknown reasons, but, without a Russian visa, was forced to stay in the airport's transit zone .
According to media reports, in Russia, the programmer was met by a car with diplomatic plates of Venezuela, which took Snowden away in an unknown direction. Presumably, through Moscow, Edward intended to go to South America.
On June 30, 2013, he asked for political asylum in Russia, and the very next day the President of the Russian Federation allowed the programmer to stay in the country on the condition that he stop the subversive work of the American intelligence services.
At the same time, Edward Snowden filed a petition for pardon with the American authorities, citing the fact that he does not observe anything bad and illegal in his actions. The American authorities have a controversial attitude towards Snowden's revelations, believing that the programmer is obliged to stand trial because he gave out US state secrets. American intelligence officials consider the act of the former CIA and NSA officer tough and illegal, causing irreparable damage to the US intelligence service.
In turn, in European Union are categorically on the issue of the prosecution of Snowden. The European Parliament has repeatedly called on the EU to refuse to impose a sentence on the American, to provide him with protection, which will make it impossible for him to be extradited to the United States or returned by a third party.
In July 2016, US CIA Director John Brennan said that Snowden should return to the US and stand trial. Then the head of the American foreign intelligence did not support the position of the former US Attorney General Eric Holder, who called Snowden's activities "a service to society." The head of the CIA does not believe that thanks to Edward, a discussion of socially significant issues began in the country.
In 2016, an ex-employee of the National Security Agency spoke in an interview with the Financial Times about his life in the Russian capital. Snowden admitted that his knowledge of the Russian language is only enough to make an order in a restaurant. Snowden added that he lives in Eastern North American Time and spends most of his time on the Internet, but "it was always like that in his life."
Snowden has repeatedly expressed his opinion on Russian anti-terrorism laws. A former employee of the American intelligence services criticized in his microblog on the social network "Twitter" a package of laws (“package”) that introduce life imprisonment for international terrorism and oblige telecom operators, instant messengers and social networks to store information about the facts of conversations and correspondence of users and their content.
“Mass surveillance does not work. This law robs every Russian of money and freedom without improving security. You should not sign it, ”Snowden notes.
In 2017, as before, the authorities of many countries of the world invite a former employee of the American intelligence services to speak on a number of issues, as well as to give lectures.
Movies
"The most wanted man in the world" Edward Snowden, after the publication and disclosure of classified information from the American intelligence services, became one of the main persons for writers and filmmakers who thought about making him part of their creations. He was the main character documentary film"Citizen Four" ("Citizenfour"), filmed by Laura Poitras based on an interview with an ex-employee of the CIA and the NSA.
The film about Edward Snowden won the prestigious Oscar as the best documentary film with a bold plot, which from the first to the last seconds carries sensational revealing information.
In 2016, the world saw a new project by the famous director called Snowden, dedicated to the story of a former US IT specialist hiding from the evil American government. The main roles in the film were played by actors, and.
Personal life
The personal life of Edward Snowden after his high-profile revelations in view of the precautions taken has become a secret to society. He mentioned family life once in passing - in 2013 he said that he had a wife and children. It is known that since 2009 his girlfriend was dancer Lindsey Mills, with whom he lived in civil marriage on the Hawaiian island Vaypahu.
There were rumors that in 2013 the couple broke up. But director Oliver Stone, the author of the film about Snowden, denied this information. The American spy still lives with his chosen one in Russia. This fact is also evidenced by their joint photos appearing on Lindsey's personal Instagram account.
In 2013, a former employee of the Russian special services proposed to Edward Snowden to marry her. She wrote about this on Twitter, but users called such a step on her part PR.
According to journalists who interviewed Edward in Hong Kong, Snowden remains good-natured and smart person, in the character of which notes of romance and idealism can be traced. The programmer leads a quiet and healthy lifestyle lives, practices Buddhism, spends a lot of time at the computer and enjoys reading books on the history of Russia. At the same time, the "whistleblower" of the NSA and the CIA adheres to a vegetarian diet, does not drink coffee and does not drink alcohol.
Edward Snowden now
The programmer has repeatedly stated that he is ready to move to the United States, subject to an open judicial trial with the presence of a jury. But no head of state has so far given Snowden such guarantees. In 2017, journalists suggested that Moscow would no longer hide Edward in Russia, but would extradite him to the new US president, but the programmer again managed to renew his residence permit.
In 2018, the American stopped public relations for a period of six months. In autumn, he participated in a videoconference with the University of Management in the Austrian city of Innsbruck. Edward said that he now manages the American Foundation for the Defense of the Freedom of Journalists.
As part of his activities, Snowden is developing a program that ensures the protection of information sources from external threats. According to the former CIA officer, he is primarily concerned about the problems of American society, with which he continues to struggle. At the same time, Edward does not stop criticizing the Russian government and reforms.
In November, Snowden lectured senior Mossad personnel, providing them via videoconference with evidence of NSA intrusion into Israeli intelligence operations. Snowden does not yet provide information about new speeches in 2019, but it is assumed that the programmer will continue to expose the American intelligence services.
Quotes
Snowden himself says this about his revelations:
“I carefully reviewed each document to make sure that its disclosure would serve the legitimate interests of the public. There are documents of all types that would have great consequences if they were released, but I do not release them because my goal is openness, not harm to people.”
Former National Security Agency (NSA) employee Edward Snowden spoke to the Financial Times about how he lives in Moscow. The interview appeared on the website of the publication on Friday, September 9.
The meeting of the journalist with Snowden took place in one of the hotels in the center of the Russian capital. The former secret service officer arrived 20 minutes late, dressed all in black and wearing dark glasses.
Snowden admitted that he moves freely around Moscow, but his knowledge of the Russian language is only enough to make an order in a restaurant, and he speaks mainly in English. “All my work is in English. With everyone I have to talk to, I speak English, ”said a former US secret service official.
“I sleep in Russia, but I live all over the world. There is not much that connects me with Russia. It's because, as crazy as it sounds, I still hope to leave," he explained.
According to him, life in Moscow is getting better. “I am more open now than I was in 2013,” Snowden said.
The former NSA officer also noted that he rarely meets people. He divides his time between online public speaking (for which fees) and the development of programs to ensure the digital safety of journalists.
In addition, Snowden mentioned that he saw a film about him directed by Oliver Stone and performer leading role Joseph Gordon-Levitt made a good impression on him.
According to Snowden, he met with the actor in Moscow, but did not immediately understand that he was pursuing his goals. Levitt later admitted that during dinner he looked closely at him, trying to catch his mannerisms. On the whole, Snowden liked the image he created on the screen, except for his voice - he considered it too low and hoarse.
Snowden did not admit to a journalist whether he actually hid micro SD memory cards with documents from the NSA in a Rubik's cube, as shown in the film. But he said that he really gave the puzzle to all the employees of his office.
The Russian film about Edward Snowden will be released on September 15, in the US - a day earlier.
In June 2013, Snowden gave The Washington Post and The Guardian newspapers classified data proving that the US and British intelligence agencies were spying on people on the Internet. Then he flew to Hong Kong, and later to Moscow, where he spent some time in the airport's transit area.
Russia granted Snowden temporary asylum for a year, and from August 1, 2014, a three-year residence permit.
In chapter
Exactly five years ago, Edward Snowden, a fugitive CIA and NSA systems analyst, arrived in Moscow. Not empty-handed, but with secret documents detailing the extent of global and domestic surveillance programs by US authorities.
In those days, the media called him "the most wanted man in the world." After a month of sitting in the transit area of terminal F of Sheremetyevo Airport, the former agent received temporary asylum in Russia. How did Snowden's revelations change the situation in the world and how did they affect his own life? Edward Snowden's emigration to Russia was forced from the very beginning.
In the summer of 2013, a former employee of the US National Security Agency spoke about the massive surveillance by the US authorities of people around the world. After that, he fell into disfavor in his homeland. Snowden has applied for political asylum in 21 countries. All of them avoided answering, not wanting to go into conflict with Washington. As a result, Snowden left for Russia. In one of the interviews, he noted with irony: they say, American authorities made sure that he was locked in a country with which the United States does not have the best relations. Be that as it may, the choice turned out to be the right one - despite the demands of Washington, Moscow did not extradite the fugitive.
We do not extradite human rights defenders
A year after Snowden's arrival, Russian President Vladimir Putin commented on the situation: “We have no direct relation to this problem. Here he is in our territory. I believe that because of the unprofessional actions of the Americans themselves, who tried to catch him. I also worked in the special services once. Why did they scare the whole world? They frightened all countries, he arrived in our transit zone, and then it turned out that no one was accepting him ... But Russia is not the country that extradites fighters for human rights.”
So Snowden received temporary asylum in the Russian Federation, and then a residence permit until the end of 2020. At first, he continued to give out revelations, passing materials, in particular, to The Washington Post and The Guardian. Especially for the publication of Snowden's revelations, the Internet publication The Intercept was even created.
As a result, the world has learned that the NSA runs many secret intelligence programs aimed at wiretapping and intercepting the emails of billions of people from dozens of countries. As objects special attention were awarded to China, Iran, Pakistan, European countries and Latin America as well as Australia and New Zealand. Snowden also talked about secret program PRISM, developed by US intelligence agencies to spy on Internet users.
It also became known about tapping by the American intelligence services of the phones of the leaders of European countries.
Moreover, global surveillance is not so bad. The next phase, according to Snowden, is the development and implementation of malware that can disable critical objects. important infrastructure enemy. It includes the banking system, and electricity and water supply, and factories with airports.
Friend Edward
As early as August of this year, according to Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Edward Snowden can expect to receive Russian citizenship. Will he want to become the owner of a passport with a double-headed eagle? So far, the former agent defiantly refuses to cooperate with the Russian special services. In an interview with the BBC, he explained why he did not make a deal with the FSB: “I broke my whole life to the ground, speaking out against surveillance. Why do I, being in a different geographical point, suddenly have to turn around 180 degrees and say: yes, now I am doing surveillance?
On this topic
The Intercept, an independent news agency, said that the US intelligence bureau is monitoring bitcoin holders using built-in programs. The theft of data was reported by Edward Snowden, known for his high-profile revelations.
Trying to maintain the image of a fighter for justice, Snowden even allowed himself some criticism of the regime that sheltered him. In March, on his Twitter, he suggested that the presidential elections in Russia were rigged. And then he called "totalitarianism" an attempt Russian government block the Telegram app.
However, it is possible that all these statements were agreed upon. Still, it's hard to believe that the Russian intelligence services have completely ignored such a valuable source of intelligence information. Yes, and Snowden himself, speaking about the fact that he has nothing to do with "people in civilian clothes", apparently, is somewhat cunning. He still continues to live in the house, the location of which is not disclosed. It is not difficult to assume that housing has a departmental affiliation and is under protection. It is unlikely that Snowden himself moves without protection. Whether you like it or not, friendship and mutual sympathy for the people who sheltered and warmed them are tied up. Not recruitment, of course: the American guest has his own principles, but friendship ...
At first, Snowden seemed to work as a system administrator in one of the firms in Moscow. Now he earns online lectures. In addition, during his stay in Russia, the programmer developed an application for Android - Haven. It allows you to check if the user has been followed. For example, you can leave the phone with the application turned on in a hotel room, and it will send a signal to the user on another device if, say, the maid came and started rummaging through his things.
Sometimes news about Snowden's life in Russia is reported by Anatoly Kucherena, a lawyer representing him. For example, he said that the ex-employee of the American special services already speaks good Russian and is slowly traveling around Russia - he has already visited St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod. And his girlfriend Lindsay Mills moved in with Snowden.
Earlier, there were hints from the White House that the former NSA and CIA officer would be allowed to return to his homeland if he took responsibility for disclosing top secret information and agreed to stand trial. There was never any talk of a full amnesty, but the US authorities were ready to discuss the terms of the deal. However, later Donald Trump came to power, who said about Snowden: “This guy is a bad guy. And you know, there is another thing called execution.” It must be assumed that under these conditions, Snowden's friendship with Russia should become even stronger.
The agent spoke - what was done?
Did Snowden manage to change the world for the better, as he wanted? It can be noted that his revelations gave rise to a discussion of issues of digital privacy and security on the Internet. Now many experts believe that the danger comes not only from the special services, but also from the largest social networks. For example, the data of 87 million Facebook users came to a researcher from Cambridge Analytics, which provided Trump with political consulting services.
In addition, after the publication of Snowden's materials, the IT industry began to intensively introduce technologies for enhanced encryption of Internet connections, which seriously complicated the interception of information. Apple, Microsoft and Google have put strong crypto protection on iOS and Android smartphones and encrypted their cloud services. And Pavel Durov's Telegram received a powerful impetus for development thanks to the reputation of "the most secure messenger." Also, the American corporation for managing domains ICANN was transferred to the hands of the international community. Finally, the revelations have added a lot of wariness to US-EU relations.
However, this is what is known. Perhaps, for obvious reasons, the public will never know what the real benefit of Snowden's visit to Russia was.
BY THE WAY
On the eve of his anniversary in Russia, Edward Snowden shared his opinion on possible interference Russian hackers in the American elections. He believes that Donald Trump lacks the intelligence for the so-called collusion with Russia. “Honestly, anyone who has heard Trump talking for three minutes knows that he is like a spinning ball. He doesn't seem like someone who could be brainwashed in any way if, you know, the guy can't even remember what he was going to say at the end of a sentence," Snowden said. In addition, he is convinced: "No one in the world loves Putin like Trump."
Snowden's story is known as a real detective story that took place in June 2013 in front of the whole world. An employee of the American National Security Agency (NSA) was hiding from his all-powerful employer and government, changing countries and planes until he settled in Russia.
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Fugitive and paranoid
Having stolen from the NSA more than a million secret files proving surveillance of billions of users around the world, Snowden flew to Hong Kong to tell the truth to journalists from the British The Guardian and the American Washington Post and hide from the authorities of his country.
The footage of how the meeting took place at The Mira Hotel formed the basis of the Citizenfour documentary (this is the name - "Citizen Four" - Ed chose for himself to start communicating with journalists through encrypted e-mail messages). When did the real meeting, the ex-NSA agent struck the interlocutors with the total and, as it seemed to them, ridiculous conspiracy on which he insisted. Working with a laptop under a dark raincoat and a video camera taped on it looked like an extreme form of paranoia. However, after Snowden's information became public, a huge number of users in the world glued their eyes to their computers, and the filmmakers during editing in Berlin turned off all electronic devices in the room and hid Cell phones if they had to tell each other something at least partially confidential. Ed himself has long preferred an ordinary push-button mobile phone to a smartphone.
The influence of the United States in the world, although exaggerated by Russian propaganda, is nevertheless undeniably great. In trying to arrest Snowden, the pressure was unprecedented and phenomenally brazen. To get a fugitive agent, the States turn on all their levers. Upon learning that the fugitive is in Hong Kong, they convey a demand to immediately detain him and extradite him to the United States. Snowden left the hotel and disappeared from view: as it turned out later, he took refuge with refugees from the Philippines and Sri Lanka. Local authorities they are obviously playing for time: on the one hand, they refer to inaccuracies in the request from America, on the other hand, they make it clear that Snowden will not receive asylum in Hong Kong.
The ex-agent takes tickets to Havana via Moscow. Breathing a sigh of relief, the Hong Kong authorities allow him to fly out on June 23rd. Hysteria reigns in the American intelligence services: it turns out that the United States, which raised the ears of the entire diplomatic corps to catch the impudent bespectacled man, did not themselves do such a simple procedure as canceling his passport.
The document is canceled when Edward is already in the air on his way to Moscow. teeming with journalists, but Snowden is nowhere to be found. For a connecting flight to Havana, the press is snapping up tickets to fly with him, but the plane leaves without the fugitive: Seat 17A, where he checked in, is left empty, and frustrated wits can only create a Twitter account on behalf of the empty seat and “report”. It turns out that the US government put pressure on Cuba, and she telegraphed to Moscow that she would not allow landing on Aeroflot if Snowden was on it.
And the 29-year-old guy, who found himself, almost like the hero of "The Extraordinary Adventures of Italians in Russia", between heaven and earth, spends five weeks in the Sheremetyevo transit zone.
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Russia is also not happy with the disturber of world peace that has suddenly fallen on it, as Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov signals to his "partners". During this time, the car of the ambassador of Ecuador is noticed at the airport (this country at that time provided asylum to the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, who actively worked for Snowden).
And in early July, Bolivian President Evo Morales arrives in Moscow for a gas forum. Answering journalists' questions, Morales expresses his readiness to provide Edward with asylum. On the night of July 3, he flies back to his homeland, but Portugal, France, Italy, Spain are closed for the presidential board air space, and he forcibly sits down in Vienna. Morales' plane is being searched there.
The unprecedented humiliation and violation of all basic diplomatic rules, however, does not give a result: the desired "Citizen Four" is not on board. Snowden agrees to Putin's condition "to stop his work aimed at harming our American partners, no matter how strange it sounds from my lips," and remains in Russia.
Human rights activist and philosopher
Snowden is, to put it mildly, an unusual person for the world of special services. In this environment, it is customary to strictly obey discipline, not to give free rein to their own ideas about the correctness / incorrectness and the legality / illegality of what they are doing. Recruitment, repurchase of scouts, double agents - the other side of the coin, but also a classic of the genre for a long time. But Snowden...
Seeing that the secret American system PRISM allows the US authorities to access personal correspondence (e-mail, sms, calls, messages on social networks, search queries) of any person in the world with almost the click of a button, he thought about how ethical this is and to what global implications in the relationship between citizen and government can lead.
Formally, PRISM was created to fight terrorism. Snowden, from his experience at the NSA, was convinced that access to the bases is constantly used for completely different purposes: near-diplomatic blackmail, providing the United States with advantages at meetings of the G7 / Eight / Twenty. With the help of PRISM, businessmen, diplomats, presidents, and unfaithful spouses are monitored. The system makes it too easy to learn about weak points everyone, and all global IT players (Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, YouTube) turned out to be part of it and collect information about us. AT last years Snowden has repeatedly accused Facebook of spying on users.
We carry sensors in our pockets that track our location wherever we go… Only privacy allows us the freedom to decide who we are and who we want to be,” Snowden told British Channel 4, which chose him as the hero of the project “Alternative Christmas message” in December 2013.
This type of discrimination is a violation of fundamental rights. But more and more countries, not just the US, are doing it. I wanted to give society a chance to decide for itself where it will draw its boundaries,” he confirmed his beliefs in 2017 in an interview with Spiegel.
In total, it was then about 35 states in which such systems operate. It would be naive to believe that the Russian special services are not trying to do something similar. Attempts by Roskomnadzor to put the Runet under strict control, to store information only on Russian servers, are evidence of this. The reason is the same - the mantra about the need to fight terrorism. It is no coincidence that Pavel Durov, the founder of VKontakte and Telegram, squeezed out of Russia, is trying to answer the question posed by Snowden today, creating communication systems independent of governments.
Snowden is smart and well-read. Interested in philosophy and Buddhism. Agnostic. A man with a rod: he staked a salary of 200 thousand dollars a year, peace of mind, freedom and even life, only for humanity to understand that Orwellian 1984 is finally on the threshold. But this core of his is still not clear to everyone.
“Snowden is not a traitor. He did not betray the interests of his country, he did not pass on information to another country that would harm its people. But if they asked me whether this [what he did] was right or not, my answer is no, ”said Vladimir Putin in an interview with Oliver Stone, who shot a feature film based on this whole epic. As the president of a country pitted against the US, Putin must have taken satisfaction in the failure of the NSA. But as a scout, he can neither accept nor understand such an act. The most unpleasant thing for him would be the appearance of the Russian snowden.
The break in the pattern is also felt by Ed. On the one hand, Russia saved and sheltered him. On the other hand, this is clearly not the country whose image correlates with his convictions. He wants to continue social activities, but all attempts to change the place of deployment, for example, to Switzerland, have not yet led to anything.
Edward is now 36. His residence permit in Russia has been extended until 2020. He secretly lives somewhere among us, his parents and girlfriend Lindsay Mills regularly visit him. He already speaks good Russian, and according to the lawyer, he goes to museums, theaters, and travels. Things turned out less rosy for Assange: seven years of isolation in a room at the embassy in London, and in the end he was still arrested. Colleague Ed called the day of Julian's arrest "a black day for freedom of the press."
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Under American law, Edward Snowden is a criminal. But for the freedom-loving people of the new generation, he is undoubtedly the hero of our time. Six months ago, 500 seats in the lecture hall of the Sorbonne were taken by Parisian students within three minutes after it became known that the rebel agreed to speak via video link from Moscow. And overboard there were 7000 more interested persons.
Will Snowden ever be revered in America, like, for example, Martin Luther King, who broke the previous unjust system, or will he remain a traitor who brought rubbish out of the hut? Time will tell.
Born June 21, 1983 in Elizabeth City, North Carolina Edward Snowden, the world-famous whistleblower of the American intelligence services, who in 2013 transmitted to several media outlets data on the total surveillance of the US government over millions of people around the world. Fleeing from persecution, Snowden ended up in Russia. He cannot return to his native country, because in the United States he was charged in absentia with espionage and theft of state property. However, the disgraced agent does not waste time in vain. On the birthday of the famous whistleblower, AiF.ru tells what he began to do during his forced exile.
"The Hermit", whose face does not leave the screens
$ 200 thousand - according to The Guardian, this was Edward Snowden's annual income at the National Security Agency (NSA). And, according to Yahoo News, he earned about the same amount in 2016 from fees for speaking at various lectures and symposiums organized around the world.
While Snowden's whereabouts have not been released for security reasons, it cannot be said that he is leading the life of a hermit. On the contrary, his face constantly appears at various technological and human rights conferences, leading directors of the level Oliver Stone and government representatives consult on security issues. The range of activities in which the former intelligence officer participates is incredibly wide. Here is his face appearing on a giant screen at a conference on privacy security in Tokyo, here he is speaking to an audience at international exhibition youth culture Comic-con in San Diego, followed by a music festival in the middle of Europe.
Naturally, Snowden does not receive fees for all of his remote performances. However, this is of little concern to the American authorities, who have been criticizing the former NSA employee for the fifth year that he "cash on the secrets of his native country." “In my opinion, he broke the oath he took to our government on our Constitution. The fact that he receives a reward for this is sad and wrong, ”the former CIA Director John Brennan.
However, Snowden's supporters believe that he simply had no other way. He could not take large savings with him to Russia. But you have to live for something. If he could not earn money on his own, he would inevitably be labeled a spy on the payroll of Moscow. Besides, what's wrong with lecturing for a living? After all, many former American agents living quietly in their homeland, quite legally earn on the same speeches on the topic of security.
Traveled all over Russia for 5 years
At the same time, Snowden has never appeared in public in Russia over the past 5 years. Only once did a photographer accidentally capture him walking along the embankment in the Russian capital.
According to Snowden's lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, the whistleblower lives in an ordinary Moscow rented apartment, moves around the city by metro and buys food in ordinary stores. For 5 years, the agent traveled around Russia, visited St. Petersburg several times, which he really liked.
Meanwhile, life in Russia turned out to be far from cheap, and income from lectures alone was not enough for everything. And Snowden accepted an offer to get a job as an IT security consultant in one of the major international corporations. At the same time, he began developing his own software for protection against surveillance "Haven". It was presented in December 2017 in collaboration with the Freedom of the Press Foundation. The program allows not only to encrypt all information on a computer or phone, but also stands guard at home. Sensors of the mobile device detect changes in the room and send a signal to the owner if someone has entered there.
His girlfriend lives with Snowden in Russia Lindsey Mills. A few years ago, the American media wrote about their separation, but director Oliver Stone, who made a feature film about Snowden and met with him several times in Moscow, denied this information. The agent in Russia is also visited by his father, who has repeatedly urged his son to return to his homeland.
Posted by (@lsjourney) Feb 14, 2017 at 11:29 AM PST
Will the fugitive return home?
Inevitably, during such a long stay in Russia, Snowden was accused of working for the Russian special services. The denials, which both the whistleblower himself and the President of Russia gave more than once, could not calm the most suspicious.
For example, head of German counterintelligence Hans-Georg Maasen in 2016 said that Snowden was "part of the hybrid war that Russia is waging against the West." According to the politician, the Russian SVR could recruit an American even before he entered the NSA service. The fact that for international public opinion Snowden remains a lone idealist, Maasen called Russia's "peak of success" in disinformation work.
But if the NSA whistleblower was indeed recruited by the Russians, how can one explain the fact that he, while living in Russia, criticized the Russian authorities more than once? Snowden expressed disagreement with legislative restrictions in the field of the Internet, condemned the blocking of the Telegram messenger. He repeatedly declared his desire to leave Russia and move to a permanent place of residence in one of the countries of Latin America.
However, Snowden has repeatedly said that he is ready to return to the United States and stand trial if he is given guarantees there that the trial will be open and with the participation of a jury. However, he did not receive such guarantees under the previous president. Barack Obama, nor under the current owner of the White House Donald Trump. At the same time, leading human rights organizations, Hollywood stars and even individual politicians such as the senator from Vermont and the contender for the role of the Democratic presidential candidate come out in support of Snowden in his homeland. Bernie Sanders.
With Trump coming to power, some American publications wrote that the Kremlin could give Snowden as a gift to the new president, but these reports turned out to be another “fake news”. The Russian authorities extended the residence permit of the former agent. And now it seems that one of the greatest American dissidents has time to grow old here.
