Edward Snowden’s lawyer says he will not be allowed to return to US

After fleeing the United States in 2013, he was charged with violations of the Espionage Act, which could have led to decades in prison. Snowden hopes to return to the United States someday, because he said he has not cooperated with Russian intelligence services while in Moscow.

According to RIA Novosti, a Russian state-owned news agency, Mr. Snowden's lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, said his client would not be eligible for the partial mobilization that Mr. Putin declared last week to bolster his country's forces in the war in Ukraine. Mr. Kucherena said Snowden was ineligible for the draft because he had no experience in the Russian army.

Mr. Kucherena said that the wife of Snowden would also apply for citizenship, according to RIA Novosti.

In 2020, after he received permanent residency in Russia, Snowden wrote on Twitter that he and his wife would remain Americans, raising our son with all the values of the America we love, including the freedom to speak his mind. He added, "I look forward to the day when I can return to the States, so the whole family can be reunited."