Snowden accepted Norwegian award from Russia

Snowden was given the prize, which includes 100,000 Norwegian kroner (€10.850), for his work “for the protection of individual rights and for his efforts to shed light on states’ surveillance of their own and other countries’ populations”.

Snowden got a standing ovation Saturday when the statuette and diploma were put on an empty chair during the award ceremony in the western Norway town of Molde. As Norwegian authorities would not guarantee his safe travel to the award ceremony, Snowden accepted the prize and held a speech via live video link from Moscow, VG reports.

As BarentsObserver reported, Norwegian university lecturer Trond Andresen had earlier proposed that the award could be handed over to Snowden immediately on the Norwegian-Russian border. This solution was not possible