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A comment on Julian Assange: Edward Snowden is ‘marooned in Russia’. Parent comment

Re:Julian Assange: Edward Snowden is ‘marooned in Russia’ by hkmurakami on Sunday June 30, 2013 @04:22PM (#5967043)
A more straightforward option may have been to outright get citizenship in another country. If he was making $200k/year, then in a few years he probably would have had enough funds to indirectly "buy" citizenship in another country (it's no secret that wealth expedites the naturalization process without even needing to make bribes).

If here were willing to wait 5 years to see if the Obama administration would make things better, he probably could have afforded to wait another few years. (Though one mitigating factor is the time limit after obtaining the documents and getting found out)

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Re:Julian Assange: Edward Snowden is ‘marooned in Russia’ by jonknee on Sunday June 30, 2013 @05:59PM (#5967415)
That would have killed his security clearance.
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Re:Julian Assange: Edward Snowden is ‘marooned in Russia’ by adventured on Sunday June 30, 2013 @04:32PM (#5967074)
He was making $125,000 per year, and $200,000 was the most that he made earlier in his career.

Here's the math. $150,000 average - $44,000 for income taxes. Subtract another minimum of $3k to $4k per month for living expenses, given he was in Hawaii.

Snowden likely couldn't have saved more than $35k to $50k per year.

It would have taken him a decade or more to save the kind of funds required to both buy citizenship and live on it.

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Re:Julian Assange: Edward Snowden is ‘marooned in Russia’ by agilebyte on Sunday June 30, 2013 @05:53PM (#5967388)
Dominica citizenship goes for $100k (1).

Cost of living in Dominica (2) is between 40-60% cheaper than in Honolulu. Working as a telecommuting freelancer I think he would be fine.

1: http://www.isla-offshore.com/services/citizenship-dominica/

2: http://www.numbeo.com/

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Re:Julian Assange: Edward Snowden is ‘marooned in Russia’ by br78 on Sunday June 30, 2013 @08:31PM (#5967969)
Is Dominica a safe haven from CIA rendition though?
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Re:Julian Assange: Edward Snowden is ‘marooned in Russia’ by taeric on Sunday June 30, 2013 @04:41PM (#5967108)
Just going from your own numbers, he could have saved about 70k a year, if he was motivated. Right? (150 - 44 - 3.5 * 12)

That said, yeah, probably not enough to retire on.

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[deleted]
Re:Julian Assange: Edward Snowden is ‘marooned in Russia’ by smartician on Sunday June 30, 2013 @05:56PM (#5967401)
Dominica "sells" citizenship for $100k, and St. Kitts & Nevis wants a $250k donation, or a $400k real estate investment. A similar program with the same amounts exist for Antigua & Barbuda.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/28/business/world-overlooked-...

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Re:Julian Assange: Edward Snowden is ‘marooned in Russia’ by embolism on Sunday June 30, 2013 @05:30PM (#5967298)
Actually not. In the US it's about $750,000 to get a green card and citizenship is just a matter of time after that.

I'm sure there are other places that are a lot cheaper.

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Re:Julian Assange: Edward Snowden is ‘marooned in Russia’ by agilebyte on Sunday June 30, 2013 @05:54PM (#5967396)
Dominica goes for $100k (1)

1: http://www.isla-offshore.com/services/citizenship-dominica/

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