Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who has leaked secrets about the agency's spying and surveillance programs, "has found a website maintenance job in Russia," according to that nation's RIA Novosti news agency.
The news comes from his lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, who tells RIA Novosti that Snowden will start work Friday at a large Russian website. Kucherena would not reveal that website's name.
Snowden's leaks first appeared in The Guardian and The Washington Post back in June. He quickly stepped forward and revealed his identity in a series of videos posted by the Guardian. At that time, Snowden was in Hong Kong.
In late June, Snowden flew to Moscow. He was in legal limbo at the airport there until Aug. 1, when Russian authorities granted him asylum for at least a year.
His exact whereabouts have not been made public.
The most recent report attributed to one of Snowden's leaks was Wednesday's story from The Washington Post that "the National Security Agency has secretly broken into the main communications links that connect Yahoo and Google data centers around the world."
Later on Wednesday, NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander challenged the Post's story during an interview with Bloomberg News. "We do not have access to Google servers, Yahoo servers," he said.
American authorities want Russia to extradite Snowden so that he can be charged and prosecuted for revealing classified information. His supporters say Snowden is a whistle blower who has exposed violations of privacy and civil liberties.
By the way, Thursday's news about Snowden's job has already led to some "This call may be monitored" jokes on Twitter.
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