MOSCOW, October 31 (RIA Novosti) – Fugitive former US security contractor Edward Snowden has found a website maintenance job in Russia, his lawyer said Thursday.
Snowden, who was granted temporary asylum in Russia this summer, will start work November 1 in maintaining one of Russia’s largest websites, Anatoly Kucherena said.
Kucherena refused to reveal the name of Snowden’s new workplace “for security reasons.”
Snowden, a former employee of the US National Security Agency, fled the United States for Hong Kong and then Moscow after leaking details of several top-secret government surveillance programs to the media.
Russia granted him asylum, despite repeated demands from the US for his extradition. Snowden has since August been living at an undisclosed location in Russia.
Technology news website Digit.ru speculated that Snowden may have joined social networking site VKontakte.ru, Russia’s equivalent of Facebook.
The website, an affiliate of RIA Novosti, said other major Russian online companies, including Yandex and Mail.ru, had categorically denied they had hired Snowden.
VKontakte spokesman Georgy Lobushkin said he could not comment on the issue, but would not rule out his company had recruited Snowden.
Lobushkin said at a corporate event in August that he could see Snowden assisting VKontakte in maintaining the security of its online chat program.
Updates with speculation about Snowden employers.
