After first denying it, Russian President Vladimir Putin now admits that NSA leaker Edward Snowden contacted Russian agents in Hong Kong before going to Russia.

MOSCOW—Russian President Vladimir Putin has admitted that Edward Snowden contacted Russian diplomats in Hong Kong a few days before boarding a plane to Moscow but that no agreement was reached to shelter him and he decided to come to Russia on his own without warning.

Mr. Putin had initially said Mr. Snowden’s arrival at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport on June 23 was a “complete surprise,” but now acknowledges that he had some prior knowledge that the fugitive former U.S. National Security Agency contractor might be headed Russia’s way.

“Mr. Snowden first appeared in Hong Kong and met with our diplomatic representatives. It was reported to me that there was such an employee, an employee of the security services. I asked ‘What does he want?’ He fights for human rights, for freedom of information and challenges violations of human rights and violations of the law in the United States. I said, ‘So what?’,” Mr. Putin said in an interview with Russia’s Channel One and The Associated Press.

To people who weren’t na�vely trusting the Greenwald-Snowden narrative, this was already obvious. But now it’s even clearer that nothing Putin or Greenwald has said about this case can be taken at face value; there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes than they’re telling us.