'It's never going to happen': Snowden laughs at suggestions that Julian Assange or himself would ever receive the Nobel Peace Prize

There is no chance that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange would receive the Nobel Peace Prize, but it is not the case that he wants one, said NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Snowden burst out laughing during an interview with Russian media on Thursday when the host asked him if Assange or he could imagine their nominations for the prestigious international award lead to any of them receiving it. “It never happens” he assured.

“The thing is, someone like Julian Assange is not taking the risks he has taken for a chance to win a prize," Snowden added. “And I believe that good deeds are the only reward required."

Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, is famous for revealing leaked secrets through his organization, including those that revealed the darker sides of US military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The United States is trying to overturn Britain’s refusal to extradite Assange to a trial under espionage charges. The first request was rejected by a judge who said the Australian was in danger of taking his own life if he was forced to go to the United States. Assange remains in custody in a British security prison.

Snowden became a world-famous figure after leaking to media secret documents with information about illegal mass electronic surveillance programs from the United States and its allies. Unlike Assange, he has maintained his freedom and enjoyed political asylum in Russia. Critics call him a traitor, with some even claims that Snowden is a secret agent of the Russian government.

In the interview on Thursday, the NSA whistleblower talked about several serious issues, e.g. The result of U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan or the company’s invasion of privacy, exemplified by the caregiver’s intention to scan content on his phones with the stated goal of cracking down on child pornography.

The Silicon Valley technology giant, which highlights the security of its closed ecosystem as a major selling point, famously fought a legal battle with the FBI and refused to decrypt the contents of criminals' phones. The most talked about case of its kind involved the unit owned by the perpetrator of the 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California.

Snowden is a vocal critic of the increasing intrusion into people’s privacy and said the decision to scan phones sets a dangerous precedent. Once it introduces the technology, it would be much harder to say no to any powerful government that would use it to increase its own surveillance capabilities for whatever reason. The biggest threat is the same, no matter what country does it, Snowden said, be it the United States, Germany, Russia or China.

“We need devices that are more secure, not less secure. The idea that we are creating an industry that develops uncertainty or anti-uncertainty, as opposed to improving security, is very problematic. ” he said.

Speaking about the withdrawal in Afghanistan, Snowden said the experience should make people stop and reconsider the notion that justice for the 9/11 terrorist attacks should come “From a barrel of a pistol” rather than from a courthouse.

“Bin Laden was a criminal. And what do you do with criminals? You take them to court, show the evidence and judge them. And then you punish them, ” he said. USA “Did not choose to” arrest the principal of the Central Terrorism Plan and “Instead, we just shot him."

Like any war, the American occupation of Afghanistan came at a price, not only for Afghanistan but also for the United States itself, Snowden said. It was measured not only in dollars and lost lives, but in political fractures and social damage. Americans should ask themselves if the war was worth it, “And if not, why we were there."

Other questions were about personal issues, such as Snowden’s progress in learning the Russian language. Snowden has lived in the country since 2013, when he was stranded at a Moscow airport after his passport was revoked by the US government during his transit flight from Hong Kong to Latin America. Moscow offered him asylum and later a permanent residence permit for himself and his wife, Lindsay Mills.

Snowden acknowledged that his Russian would probably never be as good as a native, and said that his son, who Mills gave birth to in Russia, would one day teach him the language. He also joked that his marriage proposal to Mills from 2017 was quite delayed and that if he had waited longer, “She probably would have taken it personally."

The interview was part of an event dedicated to the beginning of the school year in Russia.

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