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Snowden Is Said to Renew Plea for Asylum in Russia
Snowden Is Said to Renew Plea for Asylum in Russia
(about 1 hour later)
MOSCOW — Edward J. Snowden, the fugitive American intelligence contractor, met with representatives of international human rights organizations at his temporary Moscow airport refuge on Friday afternoon and appealed for their help in seeking asylum status in Russia until he can safely travel to Latin America.
MOSCOW — Edward J. Snowden, the fugitive American intelligence contractor, broke his silence after three weeks of seclusion on Friday, inviting a handpicked group of Russian human rights figures to visit him in a small conference room at Sheremetyevo Airport, where he told them he hopes to receive political asylum in Russia.
Breaking his silence and seclusion after having spent nearly three weeks in geopolitical limbo within the international transit zone at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow, Mr. Snowden told the representatives that “the only way for him to have safety guarantees for temporary stay in Russia is apparently to get an asylum in Russia,” Tanya Lokshina, a Human Rights Watch representative who attended the meeting, said in an e-mail. “So he is asking for one.”
Russia has sought to carve out a neutral position on Mr. Snowden’s case, wary of doing severe or permanent damage to its relationship with the United States. But after Friday’s announcement, it seems likely that Mr. Snowden will remain in Russia for some time, which he said was the only way to guarantee his security until he can safely travel to Latin America, where three countries have offered him asylum.
Mr. Snowden had expressed interest in applying for asylum in Russia after his first week at the airport but quickly reconsidered after hearing the Kremlin’s conditions, Russian officials have said. President Vladimir V. Putin, who has not appeared eager to grant Mr. Snowden asylum, has said that Mr. Snowden could stay in Russia only if he agreed to “cease his work aimed at inflicting damage on our American partners.”
Ten days ago, President Vladimir V. Putin said Mr. Snowden could stay only if he agreed to “cease his work aimed at inflicting damage on our American partners,” and Mr. Putin’s spokesman reiterated that deal Friday. Human rights figures who visited him on Friday reported that Mr. Snowden said he accepts the conditions. But he has said he does not think his prior dislcosures have hurt American interests, and it remained unclear whether he has plans to continue publishing classified documents.
Vyacheslav A. Nikonov, a pro-Kremlin political scientist who attended the meeting, said that Mr. Snowden now seemed comfortable agreeing to that condition. But it remained unclear whether that would mean Mr. Snowden would stop releasing classified American intelligence data. He has said previously that he does not consider such disclosures to be harmful to American interests.
The development comes two months before President Obama is scheduled to visit Moscow and St. Petersburg, in an effort to reinvigorate a relationship that has declined sharply over the last year.
“He said, ‘Yes, he is aware of the conditions, and it is very easy for him to answer ‘yes,'” Mr. Nikonov said. “He agrees with the conditions. First, because all he did to hurt the interests of the United States is in the past, and what the journalists are doing now is not his fault. And second, he has no intention of hurting the United States more, since he is a loyal citizen.”
President Obama was scheduled to talk by phone with Mr. Putin Friday evening, their first conversation since Mr. Snowden arrived in Moscow. The White House complained that the prospect of Russian asylum would violate Moscow’s own stated desire to avoid any further damage to American national security, but also said the United States did not want the episode to undercut relations.
Genri M. Reznik, a prominent Russian defense lawyer who also had been invited to the meeting, said that there was no evidence of Russian security personnel there. He noted, however, that the government had clearly approved the event, since airport officials collected the attendees’ passports and escorted them to the sector of the airport that is considered an international border zone.
“Providing a propaganda platform for Mr. Snowden runs counter to the Russian government’s previous declarations of Russia’s neutrality and that they have no control over his presence in the airport,” said Jay Carney, the White House press secretary. “It’s also incompatible with Russian assurances that they do not want Mr. Snowden to further damage U.S. interests.”
“That’s what we would call ‘political will’ here,” he said. He added that Mr. Snowden appeared healthy and cheerful.
But he added that “we don’t believe this should, and we don’t want it to do, harm to our important relationship with Russia.”
“He spoke like a free man! He was smiling,” Mr. Reznik said.
Nevertheless, the administration’s rapt attention to this case was evident on Friday morning. Human Rights Watch representative Tanya Lokshina, said an embassy staffer called her as she was en route to the meeting and asked her to pass on a message for Mr. Snowden.
Sergei Nikitin, an invited representative from Amnesty International, also said Mr. Snowden appeared well, describing his appearance as “entirely cheerful.”
“He said, Ambassador McFaul asked me to share with you the official position of the U.S. authorities so that you can share it with Mr. Snowden,” Ms. Lokshina said. “He said the U.S. authorities did not consider him to be a human rights defender and a whistle-blower. He broke the law and he has to be held accountable.”
“I asked him if he had enough time to learn some Russian, and he smiled at my joke,” Mr. Nikitin said. “He had a pleasant face.”
In remarks on Friday, the United Nations’ top human rights official rejected such reasoning, saying that there should be greater protections for Mr. Snowden and others like him who disclose human rights violations.
Moments after Mr. Snowden made clear that he was seeking asylum in Russia, Mr. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, told the Interfax news agency that Mr. Putin’s condition is still in force, and that Mr. Snowden could hypothetically remain if he agreed to it.
“Snowden’s case has shown the need to protect persons disclosing information on matters that have implications for human rights, as well as the importance of ensuring respect for the right to privacy,” the official, Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement released in Geneva on Friday. “National legal systems must ensure that there are adequate avenues for individuals disclosing violations of human rights to express their concern without fear of reprisals.”
After the meeting, Anatoly Kucherena, a Kremlin-connected lawyer who also was on the list of invitees, told Russian television that he believed the decision on whether to grant Mr. Snowden asylum could be made within two or three weeks. He said the request must first be addressed to the Federal Migration Service, which will then send its recommendation to a presidential commission that governs citizenship.
The meeting unfolded in an atmosphere of mystery, beginning late on Thursday, when a series of around a dozen Russian figures — lawyers, human rights workers and some political commentators — received an e-mailed invitation signed “Edward Joseph Snowden.” Many assumed it was a fake, but by the appointed meeting time of 5 p.m. reporters had mobbed the airport, eager for any report on Mr. Snowden and where he is.
Russian officials have suggested more than once that they would like Mr. Snowden to leave Russia, where he fled on June 23 from Hong Kong, one step ahead of an American extradition request to prosecute him on charges he violated espionage laws by revealing classified American surveillance information.
“Mr. Snowden is not a phantom, such a man exists,” said Genri M. Reznik, a prominent Russian defense lawyer. Vladimir Lukin, Russia’s human rights commissioner, told Russian television, “I shook his hand. I could feel skin and bones.”
Mr. Snowden, 30, and his supporters describe him as a whistle-blower who exposed privacy abuses by the United States government.
“He said that of course he is concerned about freedom of movement, lack of it, but as for the rest, he is not complaining about this living conditions,” Mr. Lukin said. “As he said, ‘I’ve seen worse situations.'”
The Kremlin has tried to stake out a neutral position on Mr. Snowden. Either granting or refusing his request for asylum carries risks: To refuse his application would send the message that Russia has bent to the will of the United States, while granting it could inflict long-term damage on relations with Washington.
Mr. Snowden’s guests were whisked past passport control into the airport’s restricted border zone, making it obvious that Friday’s event had the blessing of Russian authorities.
The United States has revoked Mr. Snowden’s passport, complicating his effort for further travel and leaving him in geopolitical limbo.
Though the Kremlin earlier signaled reluctance to consider Mr. Snowden’s application — an initial request submitted on June 30 was withdrawn — now it seems quite likely to grant it. After the meeting, Anatoly Kucherena, a Kremlin-connected lawyer who also was on the list of invitees, told Russian television that he believed the decision on whether to grant Mr. Snowden asylum could be made within two or three weeks.
Mr. Snowden’s meeting with rights activists came hours before President Obama was scheduled to talk by telephone with Mr. Putin. The phone call, which had been arranged several days earlier, would be their first conversation since Mr. Snowden arrived in Moscow.
The request must first be addressed to the Federal Migration Service, which will then send its recommendation to a presidential commission that governs citizenship.
The White House complained that Mr. Snowden’s public appearance on Friday had violated Moscow’s own stated desire to avoid any further damage to American national security. But the White House also said the United States did not want the episode to undercut relations between the two countries.
The question of whether Mr. Snowden should receive political asylum has been the subject of hot debate in Russia, with conservative-leaning Kremlin loyalists and many human rights figures vocally supportive of the idea. Public figures began to emerge with fresh statements of support shortly after the end of Mr. Snowden’s meeting with human rights figures.
“Providing a propaganda platform for Mr. Snowden runs counter to the Russian government’s previous declarations of Russia’s neutrality and that they have no control over his presence in the airport,” said Jay Carney, the White House press secretary. “It’s also incompatible with Russian assurances that they do not want Mr. Snowden to further damage U.S. Interests.”
“I consider Edward Snowden a human rights defender, who speaks for the rights of millions and millions of people all over the world,” said Sergei Naryshkin, the speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament and a close Putin ally. He noted that the United States still applies capital punishment, and said, “I think there is a very high risk that this punishment awaits Edward Snowden.”
He added that “we don’t believe this should and we don’t want it to do harm to our important relationship with Russia.”
In fact, the charges that Mr. Snowden faces do not carry the death penalty upon conviction.
According to Ms. Lokshina, Mr. Snowden asked the assembled human rights figures to petition on his behalf, to the United States — so that it will not block his efforts to receive asylum — and to Mr. Putin. She said Mr. Snowden told his guests that he had been forced to turn to Russia for asylum because he could not travel to Latin America safely.
Mr. Snowden, 30, and his supporters describe him as a whistle-blower who exposed privacy abuses by the United States government. He flew from Hong Kong to Moscow June 23, evidently planning to catch a connecting flight to Latin America, but after he landed it was announced that the United States had invalidated his passport, so that he could not legally board a plane.
Ms. Lokshina said in her e-mail that Mr. Snowden “wants our assistance in getting guarantees of safe passage to Latin America and safety guarantees to stay in Russia until he can travel to Latin America.”
Meanwhile, the United States has conducted a diplomatic full-court press in an effort to prevent Mr. Snowden from receiving asylum in Bolivia, Nicaragua or Venezuela, three left-leaning governments that have said they would take him in.
She also said that Mr. Snowden had asked the representatives to “petition the U.S. and European states not to interfere with the asylum process.”
At the meeting on Friday, Mr. Snowden asked the assembled human rights figures to petition on his behalf, both to the United States — so that it will not block his efforts to receive asylum — and to Mr. Putin. He told his guests that he had been forced to turn to Russia for asylum because he could not travel to Latin America safely.
Mr. Snowden requested the meeting at the airport in a series of e-mails that were delivered to a number of human rights figures on Thursday.
“He made it fairly clear that he would not want to stay in Russia indefinitely,” Ms. Lokshina said in an interview.
Anna Zakharenkova, the airport’s director of public relations, said that the rights workers were escorted through security and passport control and into the transit zone at 5 p.m.
Reporting
contributed by Peter Baker from Washington, Rick Gladstone from New York, Nick Cumming-Bruce in Geneva and Noah Sneider from Moscow.
The guests were guided onto a bus, which traveled a short distance before delivering them to another spot in the terminal, and they were led to a small room where Mr. Snowden was seated at a desk. Photographs taken at the meeting showed him to be looking well, in a crisp button-down shirt and a slight growth of beard. To his right sat Sarah Harrison, an employee of WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group, which has been assisting him in seeking refuge from American prosecution.
No invitation was extended to Russian officials, said Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman. Journalists who asked to be included were told that Mr. Snowden’s team “will be following up with the press shortly afterward.”
The United States has conducted a diplomatic full-court press in an effort to prevent Mr. Snowden from receiving asylum in Bolivia, Nicaragua or Venezuela, three left-leaning governments that have said they would take him in.
Ms. Lokshina of Human Rights Watch said she had initially harbored doubts about the Snowden invitation’s authenticity. “I’m not sure this is for real, but compelled to give it a try,” she wrote in a post on Facebook. “I wouldn’t want to create an impression that HRW is not interested in what Snowden has to say.”
The e-mail, signed “Edward Joseph Snowden,” said he had “been extremely fortunate to enjoy and accept many offers of support and asylum from brave countries around the world,” and that he hoped to visit each of them personally to express his thanks. It went on to say that the American government had carried out an “unlawful campaign” to block his asylum bids.
“The scale of threatening behavior is without precedent: never before in history have states conspired to force to the ground a sovereign president’s plane to effect a search for a political refugee,” the note said. “I invite the human rights organizations or other respected individuals addressed to join me on 12 July at 5 p.m. at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow for a brief statement and discussion regarding the next steps forward in my situation.”
The message referred to an episode on July 2 in which a plane carrying President Evo Morales back to Bolivia from Moscow was rerouted after being denied entry into the airspace of France and Portugal because of suspicions that Mr. Snowden was on board.
Rick Gladstone contributed reporting from New York.
