h Russia. He was put in contact with Anatoly Grigorievich Kucherena, a silver-haired 53-year old lawyer, who was known as a personal friend of Putin. Kucherena also did task for Putin’s party in the Russian parliament or Duma. Most important for Snowden, Kucherena had excellent connections in the Russian sec

to represent Snowden in the case. He also fully believed in the salutary benefit of Snowden’s revelations. They communicated over Skype, according to Kucherena. When they discussed Snowden’s legal situation in America, Snowden expressed an interest in obtaining some form of amnesty from prosecution in Americ

to allow Mr. Snowden to board the Moscow flight—even though he had neither a valid passport nor a Russian visa, as his newly assigned lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena,said at a press conference in Russia on July 12, 2013. By falsely claiming his passport was invalidated after the plane departed Hong Kong— instead