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Edward Snowden seeks temporary asylum in Russia Edward Snowden seeks temporary asylum in Russia
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National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden has submitted a request for temporary asylum in Russia, his lawyer has said. The US whistleblower Edward Snowden has applied for temporary asylum in Russia, telling immigration officials that he fears for his life, three weeks after landing at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport.
Anatoly Kucherena, a lawyer who is a member of the Public Chamber, a Kremlin advisory body, said that Snowden submitted the asylum request to Russia's federal migration service. The service had no immediate comment. "He's scared for his life, for his security," Snowden's lawyer Anatoly Kucherena told Russian state television, referring to US plans to prosecute Snowden.
Kucherena told the Associated Press that he met Snowden in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport and Snowden made the request after the meeting. Kucherena, a Kremlin-friendly lawyer, said he met Snowden for four hours at Sheremetyevo on Monday evening, and helped the US whistleblower complete the necessary documents to officially apply for asylum in Russia. Russia's federal migration service (FMS) said it received those documents on Tuesday.
He said Russian law contains no specific time frame for considering an asylum request. Kucherena said Snowden was in a really difficult position. Facing charges in the US for leaking secret documents exposing surveillance programmes run by the National Security Agency (NSA) and stripped of his US passport, Snowden has been living at the airport since 23 June.
Snowden has been stuck in Sheremetyevo's transit zone since he arrived on a flight from Hong Kong on 23 June. On Friday, he said at a meeting with Russian rights activists and public figures, which Kucherena attended, that he would seek at least temporary refuge in Russia until he could fly to one of the Latin American nations that have offered him asylum. "He's scared that he could be tortured or face the death penalty – that's how he answered questions posed to him by FMS officials," Kucherena said.
It was not immediately clear why it took Snowden so long to formally submit the request. Vladimir Putin has vowed not to extradite Snowden to the US, but has twice said that he hopes the US whistleblower will leave Russia soon. Snowden has said he would like to travel to Latin America, where Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia have offered him asylum.
Snowden's stay in Russia has strained already chilly relations between Moscow and Washington. Granting him asylum would further aggravate tensions with Washington less than two months before Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, and the US president, Barack Obama, are to meet in Moscow and again at the G20 summit in St Petersburg. "He arrived in our country without an invitation," a smiling Putin told students on Monday. "He didn't fly to us – he flew in transit to other countries. But only when it became known that he was in the air, our American partners, in effect, blocked him from flying further.
On Monday, Putin described Snowden's arrival as an unwelcome present foisted on Russia by the United States. He said that Snowden flew to Moscow intending only to transit to another country, but that the US intimidated other countries into refusing to accept him, effectively blocking the fugitive from flying further. "They themselves scared all other countries – no one wants to take him and this way, they blocked him on our territory. That's the present we got for Christmas."
Snowden had previously sought Russian asylum, which Putin said would be granted only if he agreed not to leak more information. Snowden then withdrew the bid, the Kremlin said. Snowden has applied for temporary asylum in Russia, a status granted for one year that then can be renewed on a yearly basis indefinitely, Kucherena said. The FMS has up to three months to deliver its decision on Snowden's application, he said.
During Friday's meeting in Sheremetyevo's transit zone, Snowden argued that he had not hurt US interests in the past and has no intention of doing so. A senior FMS official said that while his application was being considered, Snowden would remain inside Sheremtyevo or be moved to a government-run refugee shelter.
Putin did not say on Monday if that would be sufficient grounds for asylum, adding that Snowden apparently did not want to stay in Russia permanently. Despite official public statements to the contrary, speculation has been mounting inside Russia that the Kremlin would like to see Snowden remain in the country. That speculation grew after Snowden met a small group of Russian officials and representatives of international human rights groups last week.
Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua have offered Snowden asylum, but getting there from Moscow without passing through US airspace or that of Washington's allies would be difficult. The US has annulled his passport. Among those in attendance were Kucherina, who sits on the public chamber, a Kremlin advisory council; Vyacheslav Nikonov, a Kremlin-friendly MP; and Olga Kostina, a member of the public chamber and advisor to Russia's interior ministry, as well as a reported former advisor to the Federal Security Service, the main successor agency to the KGB.
Putin, a former KGB agent, said earlier this month that Snowden would have to agree to stop "bringing harm to our American partners" if he wanted to stay in Russia. Snowden subsequently withdrew an asylum request to Russia.
During his meeting last Friday, Snowden said he did not believe he was bringing harm to the US but was helping the American people with his revelations, participants said.
Russian and US relations have sunk to a post-cold war low amid differences over Syria, and Russian accusations of US meddling in Russia's domestic affairs. Barack Obama is due to visit the country in September.
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