section_path: History/Obama administration (2009–2017)/Edward Snowden affair (2013)
section_name: Edward Snowden affair (2013)
paragraph_text: Edward Snowden affair (2013)
  
  Edward Snowden, a contractor for the United States government, copied and released hundreds of thousands of pages of secret U.S. government documents. He fled to Hong Kong, and then to Russia where in July 2013 he was granted political asylum. He was wanted on a criminal warrant by U.S. prosecutors for theft of government property and espionage.
  
  The granting of asylum further aggravated relations between the two countries and led to the cancellation of a meeting between Obama and Putin that was scheduled for early September 2013 in Moscow. Snowden remains in Russia as of October 2023.