On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin granted Russian citizenship to former US intelligence contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden.
In 2013, Snowden, 39, fled the US and was given asylum in Russia after he exposed large scale of secret surveillance operations by the National Security Agency (NSA), where he worked.
In 2020, Russia granted Snowden permanent residency rights and now on Monday his name appeared in a Putin decree conferring citizenship on 72 foreign-born individuals.
Russian news outlets jokingly asked whether Snowden would be called up for military service. Snowden's lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, said that would not happen since he had not previously served in the Russian army.
