Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t believe former NSA contractor Edward Snowden is a traitor, he told filmmaker Oliver Stone.
Snowden “didn’t betray the interest of his country nor did he transfer any information to any other country. The only thing Snowden does he does publicly,” Putin said.
Snowden was granted asylum in Russia in 2013 after he leaked secret information from the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs. He faces charges of theft and violating the Espionage Act, which could land him up to 30 years in prison if caught and convicted.
Even though Putin condemned the NSA’s spy operation, he told Stone that Snowden shouldn’t have leaked the documents they way he did.
“If he didn’t like anything at his work he should have simply resigned, but he went further,” Putin said in a clip of the interview released Saturday.
Putin said that spying on your own allies “deals damage to your own national security. Our intelligence services always conform to the law.”
