Russian President Vladimir Putin granted Russian nationality to former US security contractor Edward Snowdown.
Snowden is one of 75 foreign nationals who have been given Russian citizenship.
The 39-year-old, ex-US contractor with the National Security Agency, has been living in Russia since 2013 to avoid prosecution in USA after leaking classified documents, detailing government surveillance programmes.
The documents revealed vast domestic and international surveillance operations carried out by the National Security Agency.
Snowdown was granted permanent residency in 2020 and at the time that he planned to apply for Russian citizenship, without renouncing his US 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.
Thus, Snowdown escaped to Russia to avoid court hearing and finally got Russian citizenship.
