RUSSIAN authorities have extended a residence permit for US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked thousands of secret documents from the National Security Agency.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a post on Facebook that Mr Snowden’s residence permit had been extended for “a couple of years”.
He has been living in Russia since 2013 when he became stranded in the transit area at a Moscow airport after the US cancelled his passport.
The announcement came as US President Barack Obama commuted the prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, who was convicted for leaking more than 700,000 US documents.
Manning, who will leave prison in May, was one of 209 inmates whose sentences Mr Obama shortened.
The outgoing president also pardoned 64 people, including retired General James Cartwright, who was charged with making false statements during a probe into disclosure of classified information.
White House counsel Neil Eggleston said: “These 273 individuals learned that our nation is a forgiving nation where hard work and a commitment to rehabilitation can lead to a second chance.”
Manning has been serving a 35-year sentence for leaking classified government and military documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.
She asked Mr Obama last November to commute her sentence to time served.
Manning was convicted in a military court in 2013 of six violations of the Espionage Act and 14 other offences for leaking more than 700,000 documents and some battlefield video to WikiLeaks.
She was known as Bradley Manning at the time of her 2010 arrest and is being held at the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Manning was an intelligence analyst in Iraq and has acknowledged leaking the documents, but has said it was done to raise public awareness about the effects of war on civilians.
The actions are permanent, and cannot be undone by president-elect Donald Trump.
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