London: A former major in the Russian spy agency KGB has said that the Russian spies “tricked’ US whistleblower Edward Snowden into asking Moscow for asylum by posing as diplomats after spending six years targeting him.
Boris Karpichkov, who fled Russia after 15 years serving with the KGB said Snowden had been identified as a potential defector as far back as 2007, reported Daily Mail.
Snowden, 30, arrived in Moscow after he was revealed as responsible for leaking more than 1.7 million highly classified US documents.
Mr Karpichkov said that Russian security agents leaked information concerning Snowden’s arrival in Moscow to provoke the US into action.
The US cancelled Snowden’s passport before he could get a connecting flight out of Moscow, forcing him to seek asylum.
According to Mr Karpichkov: “It was a trick and he fell for it. Now the Russians are extracting all the intelligence he possesses.”
