Former NSC staffer claims Russia could have broken Snowden's encryption and Putin weighed intelligence gain against summit cancellation

Former NSC staffer claims Russia could have broken Snowden's encryption and Putin weighed intelligence gain against summit cancellation The passage provides a plausible lead that Russian intelligence may have accessed Snowden's NSA archive in 2013, suggesting a direct intelligence exchange between Snowden and the Kremlin that influenced high‑level diplomatic negotiations. It names specific officials (Putin, Lavrov, Clinton, Obama) and agencies (NSA, CIA, State Department) and cites a former NSC staffer and a former CIA officer, offering concrete angles for follow‑up (e.g., verification of encryption‑breaking capability, timeline of Snowden’s data transfer, communications between Lavrov and the State Department). While the claim is unverified, it links powerful actors to a potentially major intelligence coup, warranting further investigation. Key insights: Former NSC staffer alleges Russian cyber service could have broken Snowden's encryption in 2013; Putin allegedly chose to accept Snowden for the intelligence value of NSA documents over a planned Obama‑Putin summit; Lavrov spent six months negotiating a summit with Hillary Clinton’s State Department, which warned that sheltering Snowden would be unfriendly