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| Edward Snowden and attorney leave Moscow Airport |
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is a free man. Now what?
Late last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin granted Snowden temporary asylum in the former Soviet Union, allowing him to finally leave the airport hotel where he had been stuck in limbo for more than a month. Supposedly aiming to avoid an international incident with the U.S., Russia made it clear that Snowden’s admittance into Russia was only temporary and that he will still be required to find a permanent place of refuge elsewhere.
The news was music to Snowden’s ears, since he was out of all other options and had nowhere else to go — short of returning to the U.S. and facing the sure justice that would be awaiting him. He is now hiding out somewhere in Moscow and reportedly fielding a myriad of job offers so that he can earn a temporary living to support himself.
“Snowden is in a safe place,” his Russian attorney Anatoly Kucherena said on local TV. “I didn’t suggest it to him, it was his decision. He will decide for himself how to live his life from now on. He has friends with him, including Americans with whom he made contact via his friends from the United States when he was still in the (airport) transit zone.”
Unfortunately for Snowden, he is probably now at greater risk on the streets of Moscow than he was in the confines of the Moscow airport. Having likely given up national secrets to the Russian government in exchange for his temporary asylum, Edward Snowden is a marked man. Depending on how badly the U.S. government wants him, a CIA operative might now find it easier to approach him on the street or at one of his new jobs and simply take him out.
It may take months, it may take years, but the long arm of the law will eventually catch up to Edward Snowden.
