Former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden would start working in Russia later this week, his lawyer said Thursday.

"Snowden will start working for a big Russian company. His task will be developing and mastering one of the big Russian websites," Interfax news agency quoted Anatoly Kucherena as saying.

According to the lawyer, Snowden starts work Friday.

Russian media suggested Snowden's new employer might be VKontakte social net, a Russian version of Facebook, because its founder Pavel Durov offered Snowden a job in August.

VKontakte declined to comment on the reports.

Kucherena said his client would not respond to requests about phone tapping of world leaders conducted by the US National Security Agency (NSA).

Snowden faces espionage charges in the United States after disclosing a classified intelligence project code-named PRISM. He was granted a year's asylum in August after being trapped in a Moscow airport for more than a month.

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