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While Kucherena did not arrange an interview with Snowden, as I had hoped, he did something I considered more important. He confirmed the accuracy of his September 2013c assertion that Snowden had brought secret material to Russia; material he had not given to journalists in Hong Kong. After what I learned from Cherkashin about the lengths that Russian intelligence would go to obtain U.S. communications intelligence secrets, I viewed Snowden’s access to this material to be a crucially important part of the mystery.
As for Snowden, I would send my questions to Ben Wizner and, if he and Snowden approved them, I would fly back to Moscow. But I decided that I was not going to send money to Kucherena— or to Snowden.
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