Edward Snowden Wants Asylum In Russia Until He Can Get To Latin America: Human Rights Official
Edward Snowden, the NSA leaker, wants to apply for asylum in Russia until he can be guaranteed safe transit to Latin America, according to Tanya Lokshina of Human Rights Watch, who met with Snowden in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport Friday.
Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua have offered Snowden asylum; but it remains extremely difficult to fly to those places without crossing U.S. or Western European airspace.
The meeting was the first reported sighting of Snowden in the Moscow airport since he landed on June 23, although journalists have been searching for him there in vain. Rumors flew recently regarding his whereabouts, prompted by a Russian lawmaker's tweet (later deleted) and the southerly path of a Moscow-
Havana Aeroflot flight on Thursday.
Snowden had previously been in Hong Kong when he identified himself as the source of classified documents provided to The Guardian and The Washington Post detailing the NSA's phone and Internet spying programs.
The recent announcement would put the NSA leaker back in Russia's sights, after the country had argued that because Snowden had remained in the transit zone, he had not officially crossed the Russian border. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Snowden could stay in Russia but only if he stopped his work "aimed at inflicting damage to our American partners."
Snowden's decision could complicate U.S.-Russian relations, as the U.S. has repeatedly requested that Russia turn him over to American authorities. The two countries do not have an extradition treaty.
UPDATE: 10:27 a.m. -- Russian Duma MP Vyacheslav Nikonov, a grandson of Stalin's foreign minister, said that Snowden does not intend to harm the U.S. in the future, which would potentially satisfy Putin's conditions for granting Snowden's request for asylum.
However, it's not likely that the U.S. will give up its effort to bring Snowden back to face espionage charges, should that occur.
