M A I N   N E W S

Snowden gets asylum in Russia for a year
NSA leaker leaves Moscow airport for secret location after giving a slip to reporters

Moscow, August 1
Fugitive former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden slipped quietly out of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on Thursday after securing temporary asylum in Russia, ending more than a month in limbo in the transit area.

Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena shows a temporary document to allow Edward Snowden to cross the border into Russia at Sheremetyevo airport outside Moscow on Thursday. — AP/PTI

A Russian lawyer who has been assisting Snowden said the American, who is wanted in the United States for leaking details of secret government surveillance programmes, had gone to a safe location which would remain secret.

After 39 days avoiding hordes of reporters desperate for a glimpse of him, Snowden managed to give them the slip again, leaving the airport in a taxi without being spotted.

Snowden’s case has caused new strains in relations between Russia and the United States, which wants him extradited to face espionage charges. But a Kremlin official said ties would not suffer from what he called a “relatively insignificant” case.

Grainy images on Russian television showed Snowden’s new document, which is similar to a Russian passport, and revealed that he had been granted asylum for a year from July 31. “He is the most wanted man on planet Earth. What do you think he is going to do? He has to think about his personal security. I cannot tell you where he is going,” his lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, told Reuters.

“I put him in a taxi 15 to 20 minutes ago and gave him his certificate on getting refugee status in the Russian Federation,” he said. “He can live wherever he wants in Russia. It’s his personal choice.”

He said Snowden, who had his US passport revoked by Washington after he fled to Moscow from Hong Kong on June 23, was not going to stay at an embassy in Moscow, although three Latin American countries have offered to shelter him. Snowden, 30, was accompanied by Sarah Harrison, a representative of the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, which confirmed he had left the airport.

“We would like to thank the Russian people and all those others who have helped to protect Mr. Snowden. We have won the battle, now the war,” WikiLeaks said on Twitter. Nicaragua, Bolivia and Venezuela have offered Snowden refuge, but there are no direct commercial flights to Latin America from Moscow and he was concerned the United States would intercept his flight to prevent him reaching a new destination.

He was forced to bide his time in the transit area between the runway and passport control, which Russia considers neutral territory. Kucherena had given Snowden Russian books to help pass the time and says he has started learning Russian. — Reuters