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Edward Snowden was granted Russian citizenship in September 2022.

He is actively sought by the US authorities and I was wondering whether this new citizenship can help him should he be outside Russia. I presume that he still holds his US citizenship.

Generally speaking, if he travelled before September 2022 to countries that support Russia his safety would not be in danger anyway (all my question revolves around official, legal requests - not some kind of black ops CIA operation where he would vanish and suddenly pop out in front of a US court) - but maybe his new status changes something anyway?

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    There's some countries (e.g. Belarus) that allow visa-free entry to Russian citizens and not to US citizens, so literally yes it changes his status internationally for some purposes. But is that the sort of thing you're interested in, or only in extradition? If there's a country with a law that it doesn't extradite Russians, then that might be significant, but then again maybe he could have got their assurance that they won't extradite him, even without the citizenship, because he's a famous special case.
    – Steve Jessop
    Nov 23, 2022 at 13:46
  • Oh, and I suppose that if Russia wanted to grant him diplomatic status for some reason, then actually being a citizen of Russia might make it easier to persuade other countries to recognise that status, than if he wasn't? I don't know, though, it's just a guess that maybe getting other countries to recognise diplomatic status of non-citizens of the country they supposedly represent, is harder. And I don't expect that status to protect him if he wanted to travel to, e.g. the US, but probably there are many countries that wouldn't extradite a foreign diplomat.
    – Steve Jessop
    Nov 23, 2022 at 13:48
  • @SteveJessop: I was mostly interested in his legal safety when outside of Russia (so yes, extradition and similar measures) but your point on visa-free entry in some countries is very interesting as well.
    – WoJ
    Nov 23, 2022 at 17:15
  • Presumably, if Snowden was invited to speak in defense of human rights at in event in a country that has an extradition treaty with the US, this country would have some wiggle space to allow him in without formally violating their commitments to the US.
    – Roger Vadim
    Nov 23, 2022 at 17:39
  • @RogerVadim: possibly, although the organisers of the event (e.g. a university) and the organisers of any extradition attempt (local police and judiciary) wouldn't necessarily respect each others' points of view. So it would have to be a very high-level event to be able to offer that invitation. I expect he'll be sticking to countries with no US extradition, and preferably no air route that might in an emergency divert to a country with US extradition. Even if the offer is sincere, how to prove the courts won't overrule the assurance?
    – Steve Jessop
    Nov 23, 2022 at 18:35

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It doesn't really change anything for Snowden.

He is actively sought by the US authorities and I was wondering whether this new citizenship can help him should he be outside Russia. I presume that he still holds his US citizenship.

Regardless of if Snowden has renounced his US citizenship or not, he is still wanted and would be arrested if he went to a country with an extradition treaty with the US. Consider Julian Assange, an Australian who was arrested in the UK and is fighting extradition to the US even now.

but maybe his new status changes something anyway?

The only things it changes are

  1. Russia has refused to extradite Snowden. Making him a citizen makes that all but certain he will never be extradited from Russian soil.
  2. If Snowden were ever arrested by another country, it means the Russians can complain about the treatment of one of their citizens, as opposed to someone merely being given political asylum.

Russia is the only real winner of this move. Snowden has been living free in Russia for some time already.

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    Making him a citizen makes that all but certain he will never be extradited from Russian soil => of course, his citizenship could always be revoked if politically convenient. Never say never.
    – JonathanReez
    Nov 22, 2022 at 22:08

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