Edward Snowden granted three-year residence in Russia

Russia on 7 August 2014 granted a three-year residence permit to Edward Snowden, the Former US intelligence contractor turned whistleblower. It is not a political asylum.

The asylum granted to the National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Snowden allows him to move freely and travel abroad. But, he will not be allowed to stay abroad for not longer than three months.

Earlier in 2013, Snowden was granted a one-year temporary asylum, which ended on 1 August 2014.

About Edward Snowden
• He is an American computer professional and a former system administrator for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
• He also was a counterintelligence trainer at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
• Snowden became famous in 2013 after he leaked details of NSA phone and Internet surveillance programs, most notably Prism
• It is believed that Snowden accessed about 1.5 million secret documents.
• In 2013, US charged him over allegations of theft of government property and disseminating classified material to unauthorized people
• Earlier in May 2013, he left the US and fled to Hong Kong where he leaked confidential files to mass media related to NSAs overwhelming surveillance. Then he reached Moscow from Hong Kong, where he was stranded after US authorities annulled his American passport or else he would have moved to seek refuge in Cuba
• Edward Joseph was born on 21 June 1983