VKontakte.ru (VK.com), Russia’s number one social network, has officially offered employment to Edward Snowden, the fugitive American government contractor wanted by the United States for leaking details of the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs.
Just hours after Russia granted Snowden one-year asylum last Thursday and let him leave the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, discounting pleas and warnings from the Obama administration, Pavel Durov, the co-founder and current CEO of VKontakte, posted a message on his personal Vk.com page that the network “will be happy to see Edward join the star team of VKontakte programmers” as a personal data protection specialist.
He extolled the ex intelligence analyst for “unmasking the U.S. secret services’ crimes against the citizens of the entire world” and chided the United States for “betraying the very principles it was once built upon.”
Some Russian analysts tend to think the offer – impulsive perhaps but apparently not so ill advised – is meant as a prank with an eye to hyping VKontakte across the world. The Russian social network has long term plans for a potential IPO in the US.
Others counter that with VKontakte’s already scandalous track record of being an eyesore for piracy in the West Durov’s offer is the fastest possible way to make the U.S. VK.com’s archenemy. Washington is unlikely to forgive the Russian company for this slap in the face.
Snowden at the Russian parliament?
In a separate move, the committee for information policy of the Council of the Federation, Russia’s upper house of Parliament, has invited Edward Snowden to participate in its working group’s investigation of data leaks associated with the PRISM program. Snowden would be expected to help the working group without receiving pay for his participation.
“It is important to find the gaps in the storage of the personal data of Russians who use Western Internet companies,” Senator Ruslan Gattarov told NSN. “We believe that if Snowden presents evidence, it would be a good start for the effective regulation of the Internet in terms of protecting personal data. And it will not conflict with the conditions that allow Edward Snowden to stay in Russia because the information he can give us will not cause harm to the United States as a whole or to the NSA and the CIA in particular. Snowden will help to protect the constitutional rights Russian citizens.”
