NSA leaker Edward Snowden may not have to wait long to start a new career in Russia, that is, if he has any interest in working for the country’s equivalent for Facebook.
From Reuters:
American fugitive Edward Snowden was offered a job by Russia’s top social networking site on Thursday, hours after the former intelligence contractor received a year-long asylum in Russia.”We invite Edward Snowden to Petersburg and will be happy if he decides to join the star team of programmers at VKontakte,” Pavel Durov, one of the founders of the St. Petersburg-based VKontakte, Russia’s answer to Facebook, said on his profile.
Earlier today, Russia granted Snowden a one year temporary asylum and the former NSA contractor finally left the Sheremetyevo Airport after more than a month hiding out in the airport’s transit zone.
In this afternoon’s White House press briefing, spokesman Jay Carney said the news was “not a positive development.”
From the AP (via Yahoo News):
“We are extremely disappointed that the Russian government would take this step despite our very clear and lawful requests in public and in private to have Mr. Snowden expelled to the United States to face the charges against him,” Carney said.
Obama is scheduled to attend the Group of 20 economic summit in St. Petersburg, Russia in September. Asked whether today’s news would prompt any change in those plans, Carney said that is a decision yet to be determined. He also addressed the fact that the two countries have many issues at hand, including differences in policy stances on Syria, given Russia’s support for the Assad regime, according to the AP report.
“We are evaluating the utility of a summit.”[…]”There is no question that there are a range of issues, setting aside the disposition of Mr. Snowden, on which we are currently in disagreement with Russia.”
The US was not notified in advance of Russia’s decision to grant Snowden temporary asylum, according to Carney.
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