Presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has urged Westerners to watch the Hollywood biopic of whistleblower Edward Snowden, the RIA Novosti news agency reported Friday.

The movie follows the life of former U.S. government employee Edward Snowden, who claimed asylum in Russia three years ago after leaking details of U.S. mass surveillance programs.

Peskov praised the movie for its accuracy, telling reporters that he would advise Americans and Europeans to see the film and “learn what actually happened.”

“It has a brilliant script, but most importantly, it's almost a documentary,” Peskov said. “It’s a must-see.”

Some media outlets earlier reported that the film's running time in the Russia was 4 minutes longer than the U.S. cut. Russian cinemas are advertising that the movie runs for 2 hours, 14 minutes, the same length as in the English-language release.

Snowden and the Kremlin have not always seen eye to eye, with the activist recently condemning the Russian government's crackdown on civil rights.

Speaking in an interview with the Financial Times published on Monday, Snowden said that Russia had gone “too far” in its fight against terrorism, “in ways that are completely unnecessary, costly and corrosive to individual and collective rights.”





