Edward Snowden, the former U.S. security contractor under asylum in Russia, made a rare appearance today, asking President Vladimir Putin if the nation spies on its citizens like the U.S.
“Does Russia intercept, store or analyze in any way the communications of millions of individuals?” Snowden asked the former KGB colonel in a video message during Putin’s annual live call-in show, broadcast nationwide.
The U.S. has faced nine months of global criticism for the breadth of its spying, documented in a series of leaks from Snowden, a former contractor at the National Security Agency. Snowden’s appearance comes two days after the London-based Guardian and Washington Post shared the Pulitzer prize for journalism for reporting on his exposure of top-secret U.S. spying programs.
“Dear Mr. Snowden, you are a former agent,” Putin said, after a hasty translation by one of the television channel’s presenters. “I used to have dealings with intelligence. We will speak in a common professional language.”
Russia doesn’t have the same scale of operations, Putin said. It has fewer funds and its technical ability lags behind the U.S. “Our special services are under strict control by the government and society.”
Snowden has said he worked alone in taking thousands of classified documents, denying American lawmakers’ claims that he was an agent for a foreign government. He was granted one year of asylum in Russia in August,after arriving in June from China. It’s too early to say if he’ll apply for an extension, his lawyer Anatoly Kucherena said in January.
Snowden cited two independent White House investigations and a federal report that mass surveillance programs are “ineffective” in stopping terrorism and they “unreasonably intrude into the private lives of ordinary citizens.”
After months of debate instigated by the leaks, U.S. President Barack Obama responded Jan. 17 by endorsing action to assure American citizens and allies that their privacy is protected while committing to few specifics.
To contact the reporters on this story: Ilya Arkhipov in Moscow at iarkhipov@bloomberg.net; Torrey Clark in Moscow at tclark8@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wojciech Moskwa at wmoskwa@bloomberg.net Paul Abelsky, Michael Winfrey
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