Putin grants Russian citizenship to US whistleblower

President Vladimir Putin has granted Russian citizenship to former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

It comes nine years after he exposed the scale of secret surveillance operations by the National Security Agency (NSA).

Snowden, 39, fled the United States and was given asylum in Russia after leaking secret files in 2013 that revealed vast domestic and international surveillance operations carried out by the NSA, where he worked.

US authorities have for years wanted him returned to the United States to face a criminal trial on espionage charges.

There was no immediate reaction from Snowden, whose name appeared without any Kremlin comment on a list of 72 foreign-born individuals on whom Putin was conferring citizenship.

In 2020, Russia granted Snowden permanent residency rights, paving the way for him to obtain Russian citizenship.

That year a US appeals court found the programme Snowden had exposed was unlawful and that the US intelligence leaders who publicly defended it were not telling the truth.

Putin, a former Russian spy chief, said in 2017 that Snowden, who keeps a low profile while living in Russia, was wrong to leak US secrets but was not a traitor.