Russian President Vladimir Putin It has been reported that it has granted citizenship to the US National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, who has been living in the country since 2013.
According to a Reuters report on Monday, Putin signed a decree changing Snowden’s legal status in Russia from permanent resident to citizen. The NSA whistleblower has been in exile from the United States following the release of thousands of classified documents to journalists, but continues to speak out on issues including national security in addition to cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.
While Putin has taken legislative steps in Russia that appear to curtail crypto use — including a July law banning digital assets as payment — Snowden has repeatedly spoken out about the benefits of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC). The hacker, now a Russian citizen, said he used BTC to pay for the servers he used to release incriminating documents for the NSA leak in 2019, and played a major role in the creation of the privacy token Zcash (ZEC) in April.
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“If you are America, if you are in Germany, if you are in Russia, you will see it.” China — it’s a global trend where we’re seeing government do more,” Snowden said in a DeData Salon fire interview from Sept. 23. “Technology has become more capable of leveraging the power it already had. It allows them to increase their profits, right? They are trying to use their influence to take action and compete not only within their own borders but globally and now those controllers are starting to crowd each other and it is causing problems and conflicts around the world. “
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