Did edward snowden work for russian companies or receive payments from the government after 2013?
Executive summary
Available reporting shows Edward Snowden has lived in Russia since 2013, received permanent residency in 2020 and Russian citizenship in 2022, and is listed as a Russian taxpayer in 2025 [1] [2] [3]. Sources report he took at least one job in Russia early in his exile but provide no confirmed public record in these items of direct, continuing salary payments from the Russian government after 2013 [4] [3].
1. Snowden’s move to — and legal status in — Russia
Snowden left Hong Kong for Moscow in June 2013 after the U.S. Justice Department charged him; his passport was revoked and Russian authorities granted him temporary asylum, then a residency permit that became permanent in 2020 and citizenship in 2022, according to contemporaneous reporting [1] [2] [5]. Reporting in 2025 adds that he appears in the Russian Federal Tax Service database as a registered taxpayer with an address in Lyubertsy [3].
2. Employment reported during early years in exile
Contemporaneous accounts from earlier years say Snowden found a website-maintenance job at a large Russian website soon after arriving, reported by his lawyer but not fully identified in public reporting [4]. Many outlets have repeated that Snowden performed technical work and spoke publicly at conferences from Moscow, but the public record in these sources does not catalogue a payroll trail or long-term corporate employment history [6] [4].
3. Claims about Russian government payments — what the sources say
The sources provided do not show an explicit, documented Russian government salary payment to Snowden after 2013. He has denied cooperating with Russian intelligence, and reporting notes his public statements criticizing Russian policy even while living there; but the articles here do not present evidence of direct Kremlin paychecks [5] [7]. The 2025 piece that found him in the tax registry establishes fiscal residency but does not by itself prove receipt of government wages [3].
4. Why the question persists: citizenship, residency and optics
Snowden’s legal status — permanent resident in 2020 and citizen in 2022 — and his public life in Moscow have created suspicion and political optics that feed assertions about Russian support [2] [5]. Commentators and critics have raised alternative scenarios, including that Russia benefited from sheltering him, and some analysts have speculated about espionage or influence; those are debated in long-form analysis but are not settled facts in these sources [8] [9].
5. Evidence gaps and limits of current reporting
Available sources do not provide payroll records, contract copies, or government budget lines showing payments from the Russian state to Snowden after 2013; they also do not comprehensively list his private-sector employers in Russia beyond early, unnamed web-work claims [3] [4]. That absence is important: registration as a taxpayer and holding citizenship do not equate to being paid by the state [3] [2].
6. Competing interpretations in the record
One interpretive line is that Snowden is simply an exile earning a living while criticizing both U.S. and Russian policy from Moscow; NPR and others quote him saying he did not choose to be in Russia and that he criticizes Russian human-rights records [7]. The counterview—advanced by investigative pieces and skeptical analysts—is that his long-term presence and legal protections benefit the Russian state and warrant scrutiny; some writers go further to hypothesize possible intelligence ties, but those remain contested and speculative in these sources [9] [8].
7. What would settle the question and what reporting lacks
Definitive proof would require primary-source documents such as employment contracts, bank-payment records, or official Russian budget entries showing payments to Snowden. The documents cited here—tax registry entries, residency and citizenship decrees, and lawyer statements—are important context but do not constitute that level of proof [3] [2] [5]. Available sources do not mention such primary financial evidence.
8. Bottom line for readers
Reporting to date establishes Snowden’s long residence in Russia, his tax registration there as of 2025 and his Russian citizenship in 2022 [3] [1] [5]. The sources provided do not demonstrate that he received direct payments from the Russian government after 2013, and they do not supply a complete employment ledger showing sustained work for Russian private companies beyond early, unnamed roles [4] [3]. Readers should treat assertions of Kremlin pay or control as unresolved in the cited reporting and seek original financial records or investigative disclosures for a definitive answer.