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After establishing some part of Snowden’s “material” was still in his possession, Shevardnadze asked the next logical question: “Why did Russia get involved in this whole thing if it got nothing out of?”
In response, Kucherena elliptically hinted that the unreleased material contained CIA secret files. “Snowden spent quite a few years working for the CIA.” He said. "We haven’t fully realized yet the importance of his revelations.” (He was correct that Snowden had stolen a larger number of CIA documents that he had not turned over to journalists, as CIA deputy director Morell confirmed.)
Whatever this material might reveal, the FSB was presumably aware of its existence. After all, Kucherena was on the FSB’s public oversight board. If he had kept Snowden’s possessions of these documents secret from the FSB, he would not have divulged it in an interview on television.
Kucherena’s answer left little ambiguity to the critical question about the fate of the NSA’s missing documents: Snowden had not destroyed the electronic files of NSA documents that he had not distributed to journalists. He still had them, when Kucherena had reviewed his files in Russia. Kucherena’s disclosure that Snowden retained these crucial documents did not contradict Snowden’s own story at the time of the Shevardnadze interview. Indeed, it was completely consistent with the statement Snowden made three weeks after arriving in Russia in his previously- mentioned email to Senator Humphrey.
Snowden subsequently changed his story. In mid-October, Snowden electronically-informed journalists that he had destroyed all the NSA documents in his possession before flying to Moscow. So his new story radically contradicted what his own lawyer had said the previous month on television.
To be sure, Kucherena who later confirmed the accuracy of the Shevardnadze interview to me in Moscow in 2015 may have meant to say that Snowden only had access to the NSA documents rather than having the physical files in his possession. It is certainly possible that Snowden transferred the NSA files from his own computers and thumb drives to storage on a remote server in the so-called “cloud” before coming to Russia. The “cloud” is actually not in the sky but a term used for remote storage servers, such as those provided by Drop Box, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and other Internet companies. Anyone who is connected to the Internet can store and retrieved files by entering a user name and a password. For Kucherena to be certain Snowden had access to this data, Snowden must have demonstrated his access either to him or the authorities. The Russians therefore also knew Snowden had the means to retrieve this data. Since the data concerned electronic espionage against Russia, the FSB had every reason to ask him to share his user name and password. If Snowden had encrypted these files, it would also ask for his encryption key. And the FSB is not known to take a no for an answer in issues involving espionage.
Even if Snowden refused to furnish his key, it would not present an insurmountable barrier for the FSB. Snowden may have had confidence in the power of his encryption protocols but,
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