Edward Snowden Must Fight for Russia in Ukraine if Asked, Under New Plan

Edward Snowden, a whistleblower wanted by U.S. authorities for leaking highly classified National Security Agency (NSA) secrets in 2013, could be forced to fight for Russia or lose his citizenship should Moscow announce a full-scale mobilization of the population, under a new draft law submitted on Monday.

The draft legislation was submitted to the State Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, by Mikhail Matveev, a lawmaker with the country's Communist Party. It states that evasion of military service by a person who has been granted Russian citizenship could be considered grounds for its termination, state-run news agency Tass reported.

Snowden was granted Russian citizenship by President Vladimir Putin in September 2022. The former U.S. intelligence contractor fled to Moscow in 2013 to avoid espionage charges after leaking secret files that exposed extensive details of global surveillance operations carried out by his then-employer, the NSA. He was granted temporary asylum in Russia, which was extended until he was granted permanent residency in 2020.

If signed into law, the bill would only apply to Snowden should Putin impose martial law and declare a full-scale mobilization of the country. The Kremlin has repeatedly brushed off reports of a covert draft or that a second wave could take place. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov previously claimed a second mobilization wave in Russia would kick off in January 2023.

Putin announced a "partial mobilization" of the population in the fall of 2022 that his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said targeted some 300,000 reservists and ex-military personnel with "certain military specialties and relevant experience."

Snowden's Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, previously told Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti that his client could not be drafted under Putin's partial mobilization order because he had not previously served in the Russian armed forces.

Newsweek has contacted Kucherena and Russia's Foreign Ministry via email for comment.

Last fall, after Snowden was granted Russian citizenship, then-U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said the former intelligence contractor may be "subject to any Russian decrees that may come down, including the one we heard about last week," likely referring to Putin's partial mobilization order.

"Mr. Snowden is apparently now a Russian citizen," Price told reporters at the time. "The only thing that has changed is that as a result of his Russian citizenship, apparently now he may well be conscripted to fight in a reckless war in Ukraine."

Experts previously told Newsweek that Putin is likely stalling over declaring a full-scale mobilization over concerns doing so would break from the propaganda narrative he has been pushing for more than 18 months.

Konstantin Sonin, a Russian-born political economist from the University of Chicago, told Newsweek Putin is likely holding off against declaring a mass draft because the propaganda narrative that he and his entourage push is that Russia is not waging a war, but is conducting a limited-scale military operation.

"This is what he is fed in the army and police reports, and this is the language that he speaks to his subordinates and the general public. Announcing a mobilization in the open will be a drastic departure from this worldview, almost like bursting from an informational bubble," Sonin continued, explaining that even if Putin does attempt to draft more men for the war, it will be accompanied by rhetoric claiming nothing new is happening.

Neil Melvin, director of international security studies at British defense and security think tank the Royal United Services Institute, agreed, telling Newsweek that Putin's propaganda message has meant that he "continues to walk a tightrope over the issue of mobilization."

Melvin said that, so far, Putin has been able to conduct the war without having to conscript significant numbers of young men from large urban areas of Russia, with the main brunt of the fighting conducted by troops drawn from minorities, and from rural areas and smaller towns.

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