She arrived with Mr. Snowden on a flight from Hong Kong in June that left them unintentionally stranded in a transit zone at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow. When Mr. Snowden received permission to stay in Russia, despite intense American pressure, she was photographed with him as they left the airport and climbed into a taxi, headed for the underground existence they have since managed to maintain.

It was through Ms. Harrison and WikiLeaks that the members of the Sam Adams Associates organized their meeting with Mr. Snowden — possibly, though not certainly, here in Moscow — to present an award to him for his leaks.

In an interview with The New York Times conducted by encrypted email and published two weeks ago, Mr. Snowden declined to discuss his life here, except to say that he had not taken any of the secret National Security Agency documents with him to Russia, that he was not under the control of the Russian government, and that he was free to move about.

It seems clear that he has access to the Internet, said Mr. McGovern, the former C.I.A. official, because Mr. Snowden was “thoroughly informed” about the debate he had started, including testimony by officials on Capitol Hill trying to explain the operations that his disclosures have unveiled. “He’s in touch with folks through Sarah Harrison,” Mr. McGovern said.

Mr. Soldatov said that Mr. Snowden’s life in Russia reminded him not so much of the defectors from the West who in Soviet times disappeared into lonely lives of isolation and alcohol, but of the more recent example of the 10 “sleeper spies” exposed by the United States in 2010 and expelled to Russia. They were honored on their return and given medals, and one young woman, Anna Chapman, was celebrated as much for her looks as for her spy craft.

For all the attention at the time, though, the other spies slipped incognito back into the furtive world for which they had spent their lives training.

“When the F.S.B. actually got him, they started to handle it their own way,” Mr. Soldatov said of Mr. Snowden’s situation now. “This is the way the security services operate all the time.”