and romantic the now is your time because anyone who has the will to learn can learn you know i don't come from money without the internet i would definitely not have this job and i'd probably be worshipping at the feet of rush limbaugh deluded by the mainstream media modern technology can make your mind with information or break it with cat videos and dumb trendiness but that's up to you and this is just my opinion. i will welcome to sophie and co i'm selfish ever not to the natori assent to say leaks of better words snowden have ended the whole erode faith and privacy that can co-exist with modern technology they also cost him his us passport and forced him

to flee his homeland turn into a sea of uncertainty snowden has temporarily anchored himself here in russia which is now his place of refuge and also sort of a prison. a strange sky sky he says he never planned to come one says servants of the world's biggest power he's now running from it's off to leaking some of its big secrets edward snowden would still be here a just some of the new traitors he was. a man with no passport and no way to return to russia because he is new. or does he feel it's a prison he can't wait to escape. does he still believe his sacrifice was worth the price. now we're talking about edward snowden to the only person that is. i don't

have access to him at the moment and that's his lawyer on the. spicier budgeting thank you very much for being with us on the program today don't know we've been waiting a long time to get at least some information about snowden and his life i know he doesn't give interviews and he doesn't talk to the media why is that. well at this point it is his choice pretty much you have to understand that he found himself in a very tough situation. his position may change over time but right now he's adapting to his new circumstances studying russian reading russian classics in english because naturally he hasn't been able to master the language yet. so this point that's the choice he has made all right so it's his personal choice it's not like somebody told him not to talk to the media and yours of course not trust me but it was his own choice just like it was his choice to open the eyes of the world and reveal the truth about the us intelligence spying on americans and other people

around the world i mean. it was his choice it was his conviction that these methods were unacceptable. when i think you probably know that some members of the european parliament have nominated snowden for this sort of prize for freedom of thought and now we're going to talk to one of those members who initiated this no nation christian strong and strong christian it's great to have you with us today so you were one of those who know when a good edward snowden actually for the sack or rove award for freedom of thought how do you explain why. edward snowden is a real hero he's exposed what the n.s.a. the u.s. surveillance so it has been doing and what they have been doing its entirely inappropriate they've been spying on already private individuals and ordinary companies here in the u.s. in russia and everywhere that's not appropriate edward snowden exposed and he's

a hero you know some good i would just like to thank you i also consider edward a hero on that he's really a hero because he didn't do to make money he did what you thought was right when you so that we would understand was going on and know the real story not just was been told to us about human rights so thank you very much for doing this for snowden. it's going to shift thank you. so we spoke to kristen armstrong a member of the european parliament one of those who nominated snowden for the prize for freedom of thought but let's go back to russia are you his only friend who does it talk to anyone else here and we're shelves or are you the only person he talks to at this point. north of well as for his communication with the outside world yes i am his main contact as for friendships of course he has some people he's close with that name in america both in america and here because as i said

when we began to discuss where to place him and how to organize his life he's american friends were part of the decision making process i mean it just gives you an american friends to live in russia right but it's his location kept secret for the media only or is it not disclosed to anyone it is not disclosed to anyone this was his request because we understand that he's still in danger it is not possible to disclose his location at this point but when you say danger what kind of danger are we talking about well you have to understand here that he is wanted by a major country a superpower. the us government. we also have to understand that the capabilities that america has can pose a real real threat. very serious threat does he have a security detail now. of course he has security so right now he's safe. but i don't think he would be freely moving around any time soon but if. it's his

decision of course. he got his temporary asylum papers so he's free to go wherever he wants. he has the same rights and freedoms as all russian citizens. so he decides what level of security he wants to maintain. that sounded to me what america will always want this won't change so we see going to a security detail in life at an undisclosed location forever what can change in this respect. this way for a month or two and then the u.s. will say well ok we don't need him anymore so it looks like he will have to remain in hiding for as long as he stays in russia book. of course any person who dares to challenge a superpower has to realize that they will have to look over their shoulder for the rest of their lives. because he can't just go to a nightclub or

a restaurant like you and i because you can tell the u.s. government very much like to get to him. to see leave the house is old can he do that. of course he does he goes out for a war he one travels he learns things about our country. can go to a restaurant but he can't travel. books no what i meant is that he can't go to a restaurant any time he likes. of course he can go to a restaurant or a coffee shop but he has to assess the risks every time because the threat is still very real. it was real when he was in the airport transit zone at israel now. we hear and we know that he still wanted by the u.s. government we switched to people recognize him on a street he doesn't wear a mask when traveling to man his pictures have been on the front pages of

newspapers and on t.v. for a long time you know nobody has really knows him so far he's careful well good for him the russian claims that edward snowden doesn't cooperate with russian security services but you know he doesn't but it is basically these services that protect him today why security services really then. who protects him it's not necessarily security services that protects him but he does it some kind of a private firm there are plenty of private security companies and he has friends who have lived in russia for a long while and know the country well i can go into details on the subject. just tell me who pays for the services to see pay his bodyguards out of his own pocket i can only say that edward has almost run out of money currently we are working to set up a bank account for donations which. so who pays for his bodyguards so

far he has been paying them himself from the money he had like i said which is almost out of money so i'd like to thank everybody who helped raise the money both in europe and russia his father is coming to russia and his mother may be coming to . speak of his father has been saying that snowden would know what to do next right after he is granted temporal asylum and after his father comes to moscow so what is his father still not here is there a problem with the visa. no there is no problem. i have already sent an invitation. he has his own plans we keep in touch almost daily. and i can't give you certain dates but soon he will come to russia and meet with his son . there will be him and was mother and probably one of his grandparents honestly no one really understands what snowden will do next and let's listen to

a lot of mere putin and what he had to say about it. sometimes i think about him strongly but he seems weird to me the young person just over thirty don't know what he's thinking about house and going to live the rest of his life basically doing pretty difficult life what will his next. i can't even imagine. how does snowden nassar this question himself to disappointed that the leak seven become a sensation with a russian authorities. let's wait a little what does that mean. i think he's going to have an interesting life and everything is going to be fine. he's a very gifted person which you know he's an extremely fast learner as far as the russian language is concerned for me for example language learning is challenging

but he only needs a few hours or days to learn the ropes and start speaking with which. you guys talk in russian to each other but you know we still use it in toughness what exactly is he going to be doing here will he be able to work. at this point we only have a general understanding of the question and of edwards' plan so please let's just give it some time let's not discuss now. what. technically disses current status in russia their right to work here. sure sure has this opportunity like i said he has the same rights as russian citizens have so there is no problem with that. there are a lot of job opportunities for him and we keep receiving job offers by telephone or mail. or they are coming from security services or from different organizations

as well. come from different organizations the right even ordinary people who call and offer help as they are concerned about him settling in a new home. and we also have heads of big companies who offer him employment when you know. i'll take a little is there any offer in particular that was surprising girl i don't know made you laugh. yes we had a woman of about fifty years old who cold offered to adopt mr snowden. oh well that would take care of this predicament. yes but he's thirty eight so this procedure would be complicated but it was funny because we're going to take a short break here and after the break the details of snowden's stay in a moscow airport terril and what a passport he may end up having to stay with us. the

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welcome back to the show we're trying to get the details of the most wanted person now in the united states edward snowden from his lawyer and confidant in russia on the twentieth which aired on. snowden was granted political asylum on the condition that he stops leaking u.s. related files and doing harm to the u.s. but after he was going to asylum he knew leaks were published by the american british brazilian press but it wasn't a part of their original ultimatum do. you have to talk to edward about that you know the thing is that he had leaked those materials to the media before he came to moscow. he transferred some of this information to the media during his stay in

hong kong well couldn't he maybe call them and stop them from publishing it that's impossible that's really impossible he did ask me for advice on that but that's really impossible to do. even if he gets some of the files back now they will still keep a copy so there was nothing we could do under such circumstances should we expect any new leaks. i think edward will work as a human rights activist and as a human rights activist it will be up to him to decide what to do but i can only say that he strongly believes it is totally unacceptable to use the war on terror as an excuse for massive surveillance of intercepting private messages tracking phone and cetera. so i think. he may voice some concerns about this in the future richard before they do so he does have some material that haven't been made public yet certainly because i'm i'm sure you've heard

a lot of people say snowden doesn't have anything left anymore and no one really cares about him and why didn't russia get involved in this whole thing it got nothing out of it of course but it's important for everyone including your audience to understand that edward snowden spent quite a few years working for the cia but he was never very high ranking say officer well this doesn't matter. who he had access to top secret files it's been thirty he's a very professional expert. and you know i'm sure we haven't fully realized yet the importance of his revelations. he's a very courageous person. and few people i think would risk doing something like that. if you would stand up and say. that the u.s. intelligence services. and people around the world yes. of course we expected

that something like that was going on but he confirmed our suspicions. pushbuttons got less than one hundred you're right in saying that few people at all would have the courage to act like snowden given that in the really expect much i did he actually said that his revelations my not changed the world a lot and let me quote from his interview to the guardian think greatest fear that i have regarding the outcome for america of this disclosures is that nothing will change people want to be willing to take the risks necessary to stand up and fight to change things to force their representatives to actually take a stand in their interests and we can see the predictions coming true i would disagree though you know i've been recently talking a lot to human rights activists from other countries and i can say that people won't put up with that. edward has achieved an awful lot.

we might not be aware of all the achievements but the cia and others. don't know what has he achieved i mean come on security agencies are even more secretive now and they're just making sure their employees don't blow a whistle on them. well you're right but i believe the funding of special operations by security agencies should be done publicly i realize of course that outsiders may not be able to understand all the intricate details of their field work but i strongly believe security agencies should be subject to public scrutiny unless that happens the u.s. will continue to spy on everyone that there's. something is snowden himself disappointed did he expect. base. of the children no he's not disappointed he believes he did everything right and i agree with him but there can

be and should be no disappointment because as i have already said. what the american security agencies do today is a blatant violation of universal and fundamental human rights record. some people say it's ok for the u.s. government to way it happened there. but they also wiretap foreign presidents public figures ordinary people. who have or is responsible for that should be held accountable both those directly involved in surveillance and government officials who authorized it a lot depends on the u.s. president and what snowden did the u.s. president should have done that a long time ago you know some people actually the current president originally promised to close the program but end up doing quite the opposite given more funds into upgrading all this intricate wiretapping and information storage devices that

yeah of course one thing i really wonder about is why this airport saga dragged on for such a long time and russia knew snowden was in a transit area at sheremetyevo airport and they had to say if they would grant him asylum why couldn't they just do it straight away actually it took some time for snowden to make up his mind as to how he would go about it because you see initially you didn't have any russians you could talk to because you have to realize the kind of situation he was in one here arrived in moscow from hong kong with. this is there was a complete spontaneous decision on his part to go to russia i think he may have had some plans related to late in america but i would like to focus on this part of the story but he came to moscow he was in the transit area and while he was still on his way from hong kong the u.s. revoked his passport so upon landing he couldn't even leave the transit area

immediately that same day i suppose they did after he left hong kong by the time he reached moscow his passport was no longer valid camp rozental asylum that russia granted him be transformed into citizenship well not automatically according to russian law as an individual can apply for citizenship having resided in russia for five years. no free to stay here for five years oh yes he's provisional asylum status is a little for one year but it can be extended but i'd like to show a scan i was sent of some progress been sperm it. yes that's it. he said he's only id at the moment. yes that's his us is huge for a passport. and he can travel around russia with it right. yes but only inside russia but i think only in russia he can use it to buy railway and allied tickets. has he received any offers of citizenship from other countries as

a matter of fact going back to your question as to why it took so long edward applied for asylum to twenty one governments but it was legally wrong by law you can't seek asylum in another country from inside. but he wasn't a transit area technically that's still russian territory but he had been through border control into the country to look at the whole in a second the russian government has used that argument all along that i refused to extradite snowden same he's in a transit area and technically that's not russia. technically yes well. you know we could go into legally but i can tell you that the rules are pretty much the same in most countries so tell me how could it happen that he spent six weeks in a transit area or so we're told and scores of reporters were in place looking for snowden but never got a hold of him not even a glimpse have you ever been there well not me personally but at least the dozen

r.t. reporters stuck the area buying tickets for various destinations hoping snowden would be on board and besides our network i mean come on there were media people from all over the world. and that pretty much all of them they all said they couldn't find him as. actually the chinese goods where was his staying where he dylon dri right there i don't know washing self-aware and the cast you hotel that's a huge airport the media didn't go inside every room that would be against the law . first of all airport isn't bad week but there were also reporters who stayed at that capsule hotel for weeks and so while looking up for snowden twenty four seven he would have been six weeks inside his capsule could he get a book but i mean well but there's more than one hotel so he moved between hotels share a massive always a huge huge airport it's really not that huge well it's got terminal.

terminal d. . so which one was snowden in where was he put up a plague there one day that's a great idea yeah and i'll be sure to invite the press to capture the ceremony there would certainly be a great idea going back to the extradition issue president putin said during the g twenty summit that russia can't extradite snowden because it doesn't have an extradition agreement with the united states. musha legal assistance treaty right so does that mean that once the two countries sign such a treaty we could actually x. rayed snowden in exchange for i don't know let's say victor would know we can't but why not. russia couldn't extradite snowden even if it had this treaty with the us. oh so we're just being sly and we don't really mean what we say about the exhibition agreement with the us he hasn't committed any crimes in russia the us

government says he has committed crimes in the us to these i respond send us an official request even though there is no treaty send us an official request as required by international law. but we never received one to this day. we got a statement from the u.s. attorney general saying snowden is suspected of a number of crimes but he won't face death penalty but excuse me but it's not up to the tony general to decide that only the court can decide that. we talk about human rights in the u.s. people admire this country's democracy it is true there are many good democratic institutions in the u.s. but at the same time as we see from this letter the attorney general has this kind of power. he can come to a court and say even if this crime requires capital punishment by law let's not do that this is absent some plummet snowden himself to see hope to ever go back to the

u.s. or has he given up any hope. we haven't discussed this yet you haven't discussed it why it's a painful issue for emaar it's because he has no hope of ever going back no which i know well it's not that painful he doesn't miss his parents very much but of course he was used to a certain way of life what is girlfriend here to go for and when he flew to hong kong do they break up his girlfriend is in the states is she planning to come here with his parents i don't know yet so far but thanks a lot for this interesting interviewing for today our guest was i thought it was you know a lawyer for now the world no one very much wanted in the united states n.s.a. leaker edward snowden but i reside in care in russia thanks so watching will see you in the next edition of.

i want to. pick up something that. was no way of. clearly they were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. and sold to the u.s. and turned over to the u.s. for. the sole the bieber is a lot i. was saved with great ever. really wanted to turn me into a terrorist they wanted me to admit that i was a member of al qaeda the taliban but i fought with them. about time i didn't even

know what al qaeda is nevertheless there are people. brave enough to start a fight. something's going to be done that's going to be done by me and it's been a short amount of time but it's going to impact me i be prosecuted but it's going to impact. the wife my daughter. the one time i'm a trapped. on r.g.p. . told her my language of all but i will only react to situations i haven't read the reports so i'm not in a position to the no i will leave them to state clearly to comment on your latter point of the month to say it is secure yet a car is on the docket no god. a job no more weasel words. when you fade a direct question be prepared for a change when you have to punch be ready for a bad. freedom of speech and little down to freedom to cost.

i. say wait as they drive an election just short of an absolute majority but the country's youngest euro skeptic crosseyed pull some rain on the conservative right . showdown of the yuan as security council members clash over syria resolution with russia saying is being blackmailed by the it was. cool to sign is to ban any activity by the muslim brotherhood and confiscate all its assets but it starts he is it could lead to retaliate and more violence by supporters of the islamist group.