MOSCOW — Fugitive Edward Snowden, facing charges in the United States for leaking details about secret intelligence surveillance programs, has applied for Russian political asylum, news agencies here reported Monday, quoting a consular officer on duty at Sheremetyevo Airport. “At 10:30 p.m. yesterday, a British citizen, Sarah Harrison, contacted the consular station of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia,” the Interfax news agency said, quoting a consular officer identified as Kim Shevchenko. Harrison, a WikiLeaks researcher who accompanied Snowden from Hong Kong to Moscow, handed over Snowden’s request for asylum, Shevchenko told Interfax. The Russian news agency RIA Novosti also quoted Shevchenko, who said the documents were sent to the Foreign Ministry. That report came shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking to reporters and sounding as if he were opening the way for asylum without appearing too provocative, made a surprising statement. Putin said that if Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, sought refuge in Russia, he could stay — as long as he avoided making harmful disclosures about the United States from Russian territory. “If he wants to stay here,” Putin said, “there is one condition: He has to stop his work undermining our U.S. partners, as odd as it may sound coming from me.” Putin, speaking to reporters at a forum of gas-producing countries, said Russia would not expel Snowden, who has reportedly been stranded in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo Airport since June 23, when he arrived from Hong Kong with a U.S. passport that had just been revoked. Russia has no extradition treaty with the United States, and Russia refuses to extradite its own citizens, though, as Putin pointed out Monday, there have been exchanges of accused spies. “Russia never extradites anyone anywhere,” he said, “and is not going to extradite anyone.” He repeated an earlier assertion that Snowden was not turning over information in his possession to Russia operatives. “I repeat once again: He is not our agent,” Putin said. “He is not cooperating with us, not cooperating with us today, as well, and we are not working with him.” Since Snowden turned up here, reportedly without papers that would allow him to travel onward or enter this country legally, Russian officials have refrained from gloating about the U.S. failure to catch Snowden and the damage he has done to U.S. security. Neither have they gone out of their way to be helpful by expelling Snowden. Putin has made needling the United States a favored pastime — he accuses it of meddling in Russia’s domestic affairs and propping up political opposition because of U.S. support for democracy and human rights. At the same time, Putin has been eager to have President Obama visit Russia for a summit, which Obama has promised to do in conjunction with the G-20 meeting in St. Petersburg in September. Harboring Snowden could threaten the presidential meeting. On Monday, when reporters asked Putin about Snowden-related revelations that the United States was spying on its European allies — which has set off a growing fury there in the last two days — he declined to join the fray. “It’s none of our business that allies are bugging each other,” he said, adding that the information had apparently come from Snowden. “There’s nothing in that information about any attempts to bug Russian official missions. But I can’t exclude such a possibility, and we did possess evidence of that a while ago. I wouldn’t like to go into it now. It’s a matter for professional assessment.” Perhaps it’s an area too well-trod for a former KGB officer like Putin to find shocking. The U.S. has worldwide, comprehensive special services, he said with a verbal shrug. “You send someone to spy by looking, but they listen as well,” he said. “Who was bugging who and for what reason we don’t know for sure,” Putin said. Earlier in the day, Russia’s Security Council secretary, Nikolai Patrushev, told Russia 24 Television that Putin and Obama had delegated the task of resolving the Snowden question to the FSB, the Russian security service, and the FBI. Obama, who was traveling in Africa, declined to confirm that report. When Snowden arrived here, he was expected to travel on to Ecuador by way of Havana and perhaps Caracas. In recent days, however, Ecuadoran officials have said they could not rule on his request for asylum there unless he entered the country or an Ecuadoran Embassy. Venezuela has also been suggested as a destination, and its president, Nicolás Maduro was in Moscow on Monday for the gas forum, leading to speculation that Snowden could leave with him on his official plane. “Concerning Mr. Snowden’s possible departure with a delegation, I know nothing about this,” Putin said.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Jul 2013 21:19:11 +0000
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