
Edward Snowden will be allowed to remain in Russia, where he has been living under asylum ever since disclosing classified information about the National Security Agency, for a “couple more years,” a Russian government official said Wednesday.
Snowden has been staying in Russia since the country granted him asylum in 2013 after he leaked confidential secrets on the NSA’s surveillance programs. The former NSA contractor has been hoping President Obama grants him a pardon before leaving office in January.
Russia extended Snowden’s “residence permit” in the country for at least two more years, Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, said on Facebook.
Obama on Tuesday commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, a former U.S. Army soldier who admitted to leaking secret government documents to WikiLeaks.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Inside Elon Musk’s War on Washington
- Why Do More Young Adults Have Cancer?
- Colman Domingo Leads With Radical Love
- 11 New Books to Read in February
- How to Get Better at Doing Things Alone
- Cecily Strong on Goober the Clown
- Column: The Rise of America’s Broligarchy
- Introducing the 2025 Closers
Contact us at letters@time.com