"He is thinking about it. He has a desire to return and we are doing everything we can to make it happen," said Anatoly Kucherena, the AFP reports.

It may seem particularly notable that arguably the biggest whistleblower in the history of the US—and one of the few whose life hasn't been completely r?uined by coming forward—wants to come home. But this has long be?en Snowden's stance. In a?n interview with the New Yorker in October, for example, the NSA whistleblower said he tried to negotiate with the US government to ensure a fair and open trial.

"The question there was: would the American justice system be open to that?" Snowden told the New Yorker. "I have told the government again and again in negotiations that if they're prepared to offer an open trial, a fair trial, in the same way that Dan Ellsberg got, and I'm allowed to make my case to the jury, I would love to do so."