Snowden scores job with top Russian internet firm

After a five-month sabbatical and an enforced international transfer, the world’s most notorious former employee is going back to work.

Edward Snowden, the ex-US intelligence agency contractor who ing the economies of European countries such as Greece, Italy and Spain, and the stability of the Euro – is the type of critical information US policymakers welcome. leaked information revealing the extent of surveillance programmes around the world, will start a job this month at a Russian internet company. Anatoly Kucherena, his lawyer, told a Russian news agency

The desire by US policymakers for such information could help explain why NSA collected information on foreign leaders such as Angela Merkel. that Snowden ‘‘will provide support’’ for a largest Russian internet firm, which he declined to name ‘‘for security reasons’’. The most likely candidate is the social networking site VKontakte, Russia’s

Her cellphone number was listed in a NSA targeting document, which German media outlets apparently obtained from Snowden’s cache. alternative to Facebook, whose 29-year-old founder, Pavel Durov, issued a public invitation to Snowden to join him at the St Petersburg headquarters to work on data protection.

US officials have now indicated that much NSA eavesdropping on Merkel and other allied leaders is likely to be curtailed if not halted.

Photo: REUTERS Back in business: A man identified as National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden is seen in front of Christ the Saviour Cathedral in central Moscow in this still image taken from video footage shown on Russian television channel Rossiya 24.