Whistleblowers
Amid
reports that Moscow is considering handing over NSA whistleblower
Edward Snowden as a “gift” to U.S. President Donald Trump, a
Russian government spokesperson said Monday that the Kremlin and the
White House have not discussed the matter, Russia’s state TASS
agency reported.
"No,
this issue (Snowden’s fate) was not raised," presidential
spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday, adding that Russian
officials have not taken a position on whether Snowden should be
extradited to the U.S. or granted Russian citizenship.
"The
issue was not raised (during the Russian-US contacts),” Peskov
said. “At the moment it is not among bilateral issues.”
The
statement comes after Snowden — who has lived in Russia since 2013,
first with one-year temporary asylum and then a residency permit —
revealed in recent days that he is “not afraid” of being handed
over to the United States, where he faces espionage charges for his
explosive 2013 leak of documents on secret U.S. mass surveillance
programs.
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