--- title: Edward Snowden Says Putin Should Be Held Accountable for Snooping description: The NSA leaker says he questioned the Russian president on live television to “get his answer on the record, not to whitewash him” canonical: https://time.com/68036/edward-snowden-vladimir-putin-nsa/ author: Denver Nicks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-18T14:05:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T07:22:50.640Z article:section: Politics og:title: Edward Snowden Says Putin Should Be Held Accountable for Snooping og:description: The NSA leaker says he questioned the Russian president on live television to “get his answer on the record, not to whitewash him” og:url: https://time.com/68036/edward-snowden-vladimir-putin-nsa/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt364d69eb1cdedb95/69868b48cd68486e16094356/edward-snowden-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1493 og:image:height: 840 og:image:alt: Edward Snowden, displayed on television screens, asks a question to Russian President Vladimir Putin during a nationally televised question-and-answer session, in Moscow, Thursday, April 17, 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Edward Snowden Says Putin Should Be Held Accountable for Snooping twitter:description: The NSA leaker says he questioned the Russian president on live television to “get his answer on the record, not to whitewash him” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt364d69eb1cdedb95/69868b48cd68486e16094356/edward-snowden-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Snowden: Putin Must Be Held Accountable for Surveillance, Too > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Apr 18, 2014 2:05 PM UTC  Edward Snowden, displayed on television screens, asks a question to Russian President Vladimir Putin during a nationally televised question-and-answer session, in Moscow, Thursday, April 17, 2014. Edward Snowden, displayed on television screens, asks a question to Russian President Vladimir Putin during a nationally televised question-and-answer session, in Moscow, Thursday, April 17, 2014. Pavel Golovkin—AP  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Apr 18, 2014 2:05 PM UTC Edward Snowden [says](http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/18/vladimir-putin-surveillance-us-leaders-snowden) he [asked Vladimir Putin on live TV](http://time.com/66367/putin-eastern-ukraine-russia-snowden/) if Moscow conducts NSA-style surveillance on Russian citizens in order to get Putin’s answer on the record—not, as his critics charged, to be a prop for Kremlin propaganda. “I was surprised that people who witnessed me risk my life to expose the surveillance practices of my own country could not believe that I might also criticize the surveillance policies of Russia, a country to which I have sworn no allegiance, without ulterior motive,” Snowden, the former NSA contractor who leaked details of its mass domestic surveillance programs, wrote in an op-ed published in the _Guardian_ on Friday. Snowden was criticized after he asked Putin during an annual Q&A session on Thursday if Russia spies on its own citizens in a way similar to what the U.S. National Security Agency does. In that exchange, Putin denied Moscow conducts mass domestic surveillance, saying, “We do not allow ourselves to do this, and we will never allow this. We do not have the money or the means to do that.” Snowden was lambasted in some corners for apparently setting Putin up for a denial with a pre-packaged softball question. But Snowden, who is living under temporary asylum in Russia says he asked the question knowing Putin would lie in his response in order to replicate the famous exchange between U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, in which Clapper falsely claimed the U.S. does not conduct mass surveillance on Americans. “I asked Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, a question that cannot credibly be answered in the negative by any leader who runs a modern, intrusive surveillance program,” Snowden wrote. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/68036/edward-snowden-vladimir-putin-nsa/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/68036/edward-snowden-vladimir-putin-nsa/"},"headline":"Snowden: Putin Must Be Held Accountable for Surveillance, Too","datePublished":"2014-04-18T14:05:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:22:50.640Z","description":"NSA leaker Edward Snowden explains in an op-ed why he asked Russian President Vladimir Putin about mass surveillance during a live televised Q&A yesterday, writing he did it to get a response \"on the record, not to whitewash him”","url":"https://time.com/68036/edward-snowden-vladimir-putin-nsa/","keywords":["intelligence","russia","Domestic Surveillance","Edward Snowden","moscow","National Security"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt364d69eb1cdedb95/69868b48cd68486e16094356/edward-snowden-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Denver Nicks","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt364d69eb1cdedb95/69868b48cd68486e16094356/edward-snowden-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Edward Snowden, displayed on television screens, asks a question to Russian President Vladimir Putin during a nationally televised question-and-answer session, in Moscow, Thursday, April 17, 2014.","caption":"Edward Snowden, displayed on television screens, asks a question to Russian President Vladimir Putin during a nationally televised question-and-answer session, in Moscow, Thursday, April 17, 2014.","creditText":"Pavel Golovkin—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/intelligence/","name":"intelligence"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/68036/edward-snowden-vladimir-putin-nsa/","name":"Snowden: Putin Must Be Held Accountable for Surveillance, Too"}}]}] ```