MOSCOW, July 25 (Itar-Tass) - Russian companies, which specialize in information technologies and data protection, are in no haste to offer a job to former CIA employee Edward Snowden. His knowledge will be more useful for security services, representatives of the companies told to Itar-Tass.
“Mr. Snowden is interesting to the employers because of classified and extremely valuable information, of which he disposes, rather than of his professional skills,” head of the Russian office of anti-virus software company ESET Denis Mateyev believes. In his words, if the former CIA agent decides to get a job in Russia, the company will not compete for his candidacy on the labour market, “because it will lose in an unequal rivalry all the same.”
Snowden’s employment in Russia will raise many questions particularly related with his legal status, which may define his opportunity to work in Russia, deputy director general for personnel management of the Informzashchita Company Yelena Semenova said. “But even if to drop these questions, the risk of giving a job to Snowden is that he already showed his disloyalty to the employer once,” she noted. Semenova also noted that it is a quite difficult task to estimate Snowden as a specialist. “Certainly, he has a high level of expertise, but it is unclear which specialization he has,” Semenova said.
“It seems to us that Snowden would be able to find a job if he wishes to do it. It is difficult to give a more concrete answer, we are almost unaware about his professional skills,” the press service of one of the largest Russian Internet companies Yandex told Itar-Tass. Director General of the anti-virus software company Doctor Web Boris Sharov also believes that the former CIA employee will be able to find a job in Russia, but he does not intend to offer a job to him.
Snowden exposed the massive electronic surveillance programs of the U.S. security services. The former employee of the National Security Agency, which has been staying in the transit zone of the Moscow airport Sheremetyevo since June 23, where he came from Hong Kong, is charged under two articles of the espionage law in the United States. Snowden hopes to stay in Russia and find a job in the country, lawyer Anatoly Kucherena said.