Former National Security Agency systems analyst Edward Snowden, center, receives an award from the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence in Moscow last month. Snowden reportedly has found a job in Russia.

MOSCOW — On very rare occasions, almost always at night, Edward Snowden leaves his secret, guarded residence here, somewhere, in Russia. He is always under close protection. He spends his days learning the language and reading. He recently finished “Crime and Punishment.”

Accompanying him is Sarah Harrison, a British activist working with WikiLeaks. With far less attention, she appears to have found herself trapped in the same furtive limbo of temporary asylum that the Russian government granted Snowden three months ago: safe from prosecution, perhaps, but far from living freely, or at least openly.

Andrei Soldatov, a journalist who has written extensively about the security services, said the FSB, the domestic successor to the Soviet-era intelligence service, clearly controls the circumstances of Snowden’s life now, protecting him and also circumscribing his activities, even if not directly controlling him.

“He’s actually surrounded by these people,” said Soldatov, who, with Irina Borogan, wrote a history of the new Russian security services, “The New Nobility.”

Hints of his life nonetheless flitter in and out of the public eye. On Thursday, his lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, said Snowden had agreed to take a job with one of the country’s major Internet companies, beginning today. Kucherena would not disclose the company or any other details, and he declined to discuss Snowden’s life in exile “because the level of threat from the U.S. government structures is still very high,” he said.

“He’s free, but he’s not completely free,” said Ray McGovern, a former CIA official and a member of the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence, which met with Snowden three weeks ago in his only verified public appearance since he received asylum on July 31. Even those who attended were not exactly sure where the meeting took place, having been driven in a van with darkened windows.

The possibility that Snowden might work openly here could not be verified, though the conditions of his asylum would in theory allow it, and some experts doubted the notion, given Snowden’s evident desire to keep a low profile. Other claims about Snowden’s surreptitious life here — his whereabouts, his social activities, even his dating — are unsubstantiated. Nonetheless, interviews with those who have met with him here have provided some clues to an unintended life in exile.

Aside from Kucherena, a bearish man who has handled many prominent cases here, Snowden’s main conduit to the world and the efforts to challenge the extent of U.S. eavesdropping has been Harrison, a trusted lieutenant of WikiLeaks’ founder, Julian Assange.

She arrived with him on a flight from Hong Kong in June that left them unintentionally stranded in a transit zone at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow. When Snowden received permission to stay in Russia, despite intense U.S. 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 Harrison and WikiLeaks that the members of the Sam Adams Associates organized their meeting with Snowden — possibly, though not certainly, here in Moscow — to present an award to him for his leaks.

Those who have seen him in Russia say Snowden appears aware of the gravity of the situation he has created, but also at peace with his choice to disclose secrets.

His father, Lon, who visited him last month, said he was working “to try to normalize his life.” His son, he said, had no interest in writing a book or otherwise seeking monetary gain from the disclosures. He said he did not know if his son would soon begin working, as Kucherena said.