Glenn Greenwald Mocks Snowden Critics After Putin PR Stunt

Reuters

Glenn Greenwald, the reporter who published many of the first news stories based on National Security Agency surveillance leaks last summer, took to Twitter to address a television appearance the source of the NSA documents, Edward Snowden, made alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday.

In the appearance, which has been described by many observers as a brazen public relations move by the Russian government, Snowden asked Putin about Russia's surveillance programs. Putin responded that Russia does not have mass surveillance along the lines of what Snowden exposed at the NSA because its intelligence agencies operate within a strict legal framework and do not have the same technical or financial resources as their American counterparts.

On Twitter Thursday, Greenwald took a jab at those who would suggest the appearance proves Snowden, who took refuge in Moscow after being charged under the espionage act last June, is a Russian intelligence asset.

"Snowden should storm the Kremlin, take their surveillance docs & demand to be sent to the US: just like his brave patriotic critics would do," Greenwald wrote.

Greenwald did not respond to a request from Business Insider to elaborate on his comment.