Despite having a very public job offer handed to him last August, Edward Snowden will not be joining Russian social networking website VKontakte (VK), its founder Pavel Durov has confirmed to TechCrunch.
Contrary to reports that Snowden’s lawyer announced Snowden’s employment at VK yesterday, Durov writes that the stories and rumors are untrue. In fact, he told us onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt Europe in Berlin last week that Snowden, whom he views as a personal hero for exposing the NSA’s international surveillance, had not reached out about the August offer.
Earlier this week, a Russian news agency reported that the whistleblower had secured post-asylum employment with a “major” Russian website, which could mean odnoklassniki.ru, mail.ru, liveinternet.ru and many others. Yandex, which is the top website in Russia, confirmed to The Verge that it had not given Snowden a job.
Guess we’ll find out which site it actually is soon enough.