Edward Snowden needs better security after a news report quoted unnamed US intelligence officials saying they wanted the former spy agency contractor dead and discussing ways to kill him, his Russian lawyer said on Tuesday.
Snowden was granted asylum in Russia last summer after fleeing the United States, where he is wanted on espionage charges for leaking information about government surveillance practices.
The American's revelations caused an uproar in the United States over privacy rights and angered many US allies. Russia's decision to shelter him damaged already strained ties between Moscow and Washington.
"We are concerned about potential hidden threats that we have heard often recently. In these statements ... they openly call for physical reprisal against Edward Snowden," lawyer Anatoly Kucherena said on state-run Rossiya-24 television.