Russia: No Snowden asylum request as yet
Source: Agencies |
July 14, 2013, Sunday
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RUSSIA kept former United States spy agency contractor Edward Snowden at arm's length yesterday, saying it had not been in touch with the fugitive American and had not yet received a formal request for political asylum.
Remarks by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov signalled Russia is weighing its options after Snowden, who is stranded at a Moscow airport, broke three weeks of silence and asked for refuge in Russia until he can get safe passage to Latin America.
Washington urged Moscow to return Snowden to the US, where he is wanted on espionage charges after revealing details of secret surveillance programs, and President Barack Obama spoke by phone to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Snowden's leaks about US spy methods, including eavesdropping on global email traffic, have upset Washington's friends and foes alike. Stuck at Sheremetyevo Airport with his passport revoked, he has become an irritant in relations between the US and Russia.
"We are not in contact with Snowden," Russian news agencies quoted Lavrov as saying in Kyrgyzstan, where he attended a foreign ministers' meeting.
He said he had learned of Snowden's meeting with Russian human rights activists and public figures at the airport on Friday from the media.
Snowden, who had previously kept out of sight since arriving in the airport's transit zone on June 23, told the activists that he would submit his asylum request the same day.
Lavrov said that under Russian law, asylum seekers must first make an official appeal to the Federal Migration Service. But its director, Konstantin Romodanovsky, said yesterday they had not yet received such a request from Snowden.
Snowden, who worked at a National Security Agency facility, in Hawaii, revealed that the NSA has access to vast amounts of data such as emails and chat rooms from companies, including Facebook and Google, under a government program called Prism. He fled to Hong Kong and then flew to Moscow, where he has remained in the airport transit zone. The American has no visa to enter Russia.
And while pro-Kremlin politicians have been avidly casting Snowden, 30, as a rights defender, Putin said last month that the surveillance methods he revealed were largely justified if applied lawfully.
Putin has said twice that Snowden should choose a final destination and go there, and on July 2 he said Russia could only take Snowden in if he stopped activities "aimed at harming our American partners."
Remarks by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov signalled Russia is weighing its options after Snowden, who is stranded at a Moscow airport, broke three weeks of silence and asked for refuge in Russia until he can get safe passage to Latin America.
Washington urged Moscow to return Snowden to the US, where he is wanted on espionage charges after revealing details of secret surveillance programs, and President Barack Obama spoke by phone to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Snowden's leaks about US spy methods, including eavesdropping on global email traffic, have upset Washington's friends and foes alike. Stuck at Sheremetyevo Airport with his passport revoked, he has become an irritant in relations between the US and Russia.
"We are not in contact with Snowden," Russian news agencies quoted Lavrov as saying in Kyrgyzstan, where he attended a foreign ministers' meeting.
He said he had learned of Snowden's meeting with Russian human rights activists and public figures at the airport on Friday from the media.
Snowden, who had previously kept out of sight since arriving in the airport's transit zone on June 23, told the activists that he would submit his asylum request the same day.
Lavrov said that under Russian law, asylum seekers must first make an official appeal to the Federal Migration Service. But its director, Konstantin Romodanovsky, said yesterday they had not yet received such a request from Snowden.
Snowden, who worked at a National Security Agency facility, in Hawaii, revealed that the NSA has access to vast amounts of data such as emails and chat rooms from companies, including Facebook and Google, under a government program called Prism. He fled to Hong Kong and then flew to Moscow, where he has remained in the airport transit zone. The American has no visa to enter Russia.
And while pro-Kremlin politicians have been avidly casting Snowden, 30, as a rights defender, Putin said last month that the surveillance methods he revealed were largely justified if applied lawfully.
Putin has said twice that Snowden should choose a final destination and go there, and on July 2 he said Russia could only take Snowden in if he stopped activities "aimed at harming our American partners."
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