On Sept. 26, Edward Snowden was granted Russian citizenship after living in exile in Russia since 2013.

But who is Edward Snowden?

Edward Snowden was born in the USA and is now a naturalized citizen of Russia. Before he escaped from the US, he was a computer intelligence consultant at the National Security Agency (NSA) and he was accused of leaking highly classified information. What he revealed was global surveillance programs present in the US, as well as many other countries, all cooperating in spying on their citizens. The information he exposed changed the world, exposing mass espionage that the world governments have done on their civilians and how politicians interact with their constituents.

The fact that he’s now a citizen of the Russian Federation means he doesn’t have to hide in exile anymore and can live a mostly normal life. He still hopes to return to his home country, the United States of America, at some point in the future and said if he were promised a fair trial, he’d return to the country.

A movie starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt was made about his story in 2016 called “Snowden.”