WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden started making revelations about widespread US global surveillance in 2013.
The same year, Russia granted the whistleblower temporary asylum for one year. In August 2014, Snowden received a three-year residence permit to live in Russia.
"Edward Snowden is a spy, and if Russia respected us they would have sent him back immediately," Trump said on Thursday night during a Republican debate in Detroit, as quoted by The Atlantic.
He currently works with academics, technologists and engineers on privacy solutions and collaborates with the US-based Freedom of the Press Foundation.
The United States has sought to extradite Snowden and prosecute him under the US Espionage Act for revealing classified documents.
