Russia extends Snowden’s stay

By Joe Sterling, CNN

updated 8:10 AM EDT, Thu August 7, 2014

Edward Snowden gets three more years of residency in Russia.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- Edward Snowden, who leaked secret information about U.S. spying programs, has been granted an extension to stay in Russia for three more years, his attorney said in a televised press conference in Moscow Thursday.

Snowden recently formally requested that Russia's government extend his temporary asylum, and Snowden attorney Anatoly Kucherena said the request had been accepted.

"As of August 1, 2014, Snowden has received residency for three years," Kucherena told reporters Thursday.

Snowden's temporary asylum in Russia ended on July 31. He'd been holed up at a Moscow airport for five weeks before the Russian government granted asylum for one year on August 1, 2013.

Snowden has kept busy working for a Russian website and speaking out on the disclosures about the U.S. government's spying programs and processes that he helped make public.

Snowden's disclosures in 2013 made him an icon among those who praised him for risking his future to expose these secrets and a villain among those who accused him of being a lawbreaker who betrayed the United States.

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Russia extends Snowden's stay