Snowden remains in Russia: new revelations about his stay!

Snowden remains in Russia: new revelations about his stay!

Edward Snowden, which is known for his revelations about the US government's espionage practices, has settled in the Moscow surrounding area in accordance with current tax data. As OE24 is registered with a finance office in Ljuberzy, which indicates that his stay in Russia indicates is no longer secret. The authority in Ljuberzy is responsible for several cities in the surrounding area and enables official tax recording of the former whistleblower.

Snowden passed on documents on the activities of the US District Service NSA and the British GCHQ to journalists more than a decade ago. Originally, he planned to flee to Ecuador, but stranded in Scheremetjewo in Moscow after the US government had annuled its passport. None of the countries wanted to split up with the United States, so Russia under President Vladimir Putin Asylum offered him. Snowden now has Russian citizenship.

The effects of Snowden's revelations

The revelations of Snowden have significantly changed the perception of mass surveillance, as he himself explained during a conference in June 2022. According to Tagesschau , the public has improved the security standards on the Internet, even if the evaluation of his person remains controversial. Erik Dahl, a former intelligence officer, described Snowden as the law crusher who should face the consequences in the USA to be considered a hero.

Political scientist Thomas Rid analyzed 2,700 Snowden files and emphasizes the extraordinary skills of the NSA, especially in the area of counter-espionage. RID explains that most information is still used for valuable research despite the espionage with allies, such as the disruption of Angela Merkel's cell phone.

protection of whistleblowers and data protection issues

The debates about Snowden also lead to current concerns about data protection and civil rights. In his first public report, NSA inspector Robert Stroch expressed concerns about the open source intelligence collection and emphasized the risk of the privacy of US citizens. In the report that whistleblower.org is also published for the necessity pointed out to protect whistleblower.

The NSA has reacted by hiring a whistleblower coordinator and implementing internal measures to report misconduct. Snowden had previously tried to draw attention to grievances via internal channels, which, however, seems to him to have failed. The report concludes with the determination that such measures are necessary to ensure that whistleblower is not punished for their reports.