Journalists Listen To Former U.S. Spy Agency NSA Contractor Edward Snowden
IN PHOTO: Journalists listen to a speech and a question posed by former U.S. spy agency NSA contractor Edward Snowden, at a media centre during Russian President Vladimir Putin's live broadcast nationwide phone-in, in Moscow April 17, 2014. Reuters/Sergei Karpukhin

Edward Snowden has reunited with Lindsay Mills, his girlfriend, in Russia. The U.S. whistleblower, who is on the run, has also made another friend---a dog of strange breed. According to rtnews.com, the NSA ex-contractor's lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, flashed the picture of Snowden with his dog in Rossiya 24 TV channel, and revealed the animal's name as Rick.

As with earlier images of Snowden, he is shown as being hunted by the U.S., prosecutors, but now beyond their reach in Moscow. The photograph does not exactly give any hint of where he is, according to Daily Mail.

In the summer of 2013, Snowden had asked for a temporary residence in Russia, and has been permitted to stay for three years. Since then, he has been having a quiet, ordinary life in the Russian capital. Last July, he met his polestar dancer girlfriend, Mills again, the "Citizenfour" documentary said. They were both spotted in a threatre. Other recently released images have shown him pushing a supermarket trolley across a road and on a tourist boat on Moscow's river.

So far, whatever he has revealed has started a worldwide debate on "the limits of privacy versus the needs of national security," according to Daily Mail. While he is seen to be a traitor who does not come up to be tried in the U.S. for his actions, his supporters call him an idealist with a heroic streak fighting for civil liberties.

In June, 2012, he had given documents that showed "operational details of specific attacks on computers, including internet protocol (IP) addresses, dates of attacks and whether a computer was still being monitored remotely" to Lana Lam of the South China Morning Post, according to businessinsider.com. Since then, he has been in Russia, as Julian Assange told him that he would not be safe anywhere else.

In early November, Snowden also ran into Oliver Stone, Hollywood film director, who is making a film about him. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the star. Stone said to RIA-Novosti news agency that the script was based on the Guardian newspaper book, and also Anatoly Kucherena's fictional story on Snowden in Russia. Called "Time of the Octopus," it includes other sources too, including various interviews and articles, according to Stone.