NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has reportedly claimed that he did not take the trove of classified US data to Russia and there was absolutely no chance of officials from the country or from China accessing them.
The former NSA system analyst said that all the secret documents he obtained while working in the US for the spy agency, were handed over to the journalists during his stay in Hong Kong.
According to the Washington Post, Snowden revealed that he did not retain copies of the documents and did not take them to Russia, where he is currently granted a temporary political asylum as it would not serve the public interest.
The whistleblower further said that his familiarity with China's intelligence abilities allowed him to protect the documents from Chinese spies while he was holed up in Hong Kong.
Snowden has been charged with espionage for revealing classified data about the US' alleged 'snoop-ops' on citizens' web and telephone data without their knowledge on the pretext of national security.
