Snowden welcomes Putin offer: report

Global Times

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US citizen and the whistleblower on NSA's global spying program Edward Snowden says he is "kind of encouraged" by the idea that Russia President Vladimir Putin might return him to the US to stand trial, media reported.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Yahoo News, Snowden, however, insisted that he isn't eager to return home to face US justice, noting such a prospect "would be a threat to my liberty and to my life."

"It wasn't so many years ago that people were saying, 'This guy's a Russian spy,'" said Snowden when asked by Yahoo reporter Katie Couric how "nervous" he was about the possibility of losing his Russian sanctuary and being sent home to face criminal charges of theft of government property and violations of the Espionage Act.

"But countries don't give up their spies. And if my recent criticism of the Russian government's Internet policies, criticisms of their human rights record, have been so severe that even my greatest critics in the intelligence community are now saying, 'Oh, yeah, he's a liability, they wanna get him out of there,' that's a vindication."

"Vindication of what?" Couric asked him.

"The fact that I'm independent, the fact that I have always worked on behalf of the United States, and the fact that Russia doesn't own me," Snowden replied. "In fact, the Russian government may see me as sort of a liability."

Now intelligence officials believe that Vladimir Putin is considering handing over Snowden to President-elect Donald Trumpas a welcome gift - and as punishment for speaking out about the country's repressive laws, Yahoo said.

Snowden has been vocal about his contempt for Russian surveillance laws and its treatment of gay, lesbian and transgender people.

At the moment, Snowden is backed by an online campaign to get President Obama to pardon him before he leaves office, said Daily Mail.

But Obama says he won't sign off on any deal until after Snowden is in the country and his case has been through court.

According to the petition site PardonSnowden.org, there are 42 days left for Obama to sign a pardon while there have been no messages coming out from Kremlin that Snowden may be granted to return to the US.

(GLOBAL TIMES)