Vladimir Putin Grants Edward Snowden Russian Citizenship

Vladamir Putin has granted citizenship to Edward Snowden. Snowden was granted permanent residency in 2020, and on Monday a decree from Putin conferred citizenship to Snowden.

Putin's decree also granted citizenship to 74 other foreign nationals. And, as Reuters reports, it extended "a simplified Russian naturalisation process to all citizens of Ukraine[.]" The move has been sharply criticized by the Ukranian government, calling it "another encroachment on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, incompatible with the norms and principles of international law."

Snowden had posted on Twitter back in 2020 that he and his wife were "applying for dual US-Russian citizenship," because they have "no desire to be separated from our son."

IE