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| In this image provided by Human Rights Watch, NSA leaker Edward Snowden, center, attends a news conference at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport with Sarah Harrison of WikiLeaks, left, Friday, July 12, 2013. Snowden wants to seek asylum in Russia, according to a Parliament member who was among about a dozen activists and officials to meet with him Friday in the Moscow airport where he's been marooned for weeks. Duma member Vyacheslav Nikonov told reporters of Snowden's intentions after the meeting behind closed doors in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport. |
MOSCOW (AP)
-- Russian immigration officials said Saturday they have not received an
application from Edward Snowden, the U.S. National Security Agency
leaker who wants to get asylum in Russia.
Snowden
came to Moscow's Sheremetyevo international airport on June 23 from
Hong Kong, apparently intending to board a flight to Cuba. But he did
not get on that flight and is believed to have spent the last three
weeks marooned in the airport's transit zone.
On
Friday, he met with human rights activists there and said he would seek
Russian asylum, at least as a temporary measure before going to
Venezuela, Bolivia or Nicaragua, all of which have offered him asylum.
But
the Interfax news agency quoted Russian migration service head
Konstantin Romodanovsky as saying no asylum request had been received as
of Saturday. The state news agency RIA Novosti cited migration service
spokeswoman, Zalina Kornilova, as also saying no request had been
received.
Snowden had made a previous bid for
Russian asylum, but President Vladimir Putin said he would have to agree
to stop further leaks of information about American intelligence
service activities before it would be considered. Snowden withdrew the
bid, but participants in Friday's meeting said he was now ready to agree
to stop leaks.
Granting asylum to Snowden would add significant new stress to already-troubled Washington-Moscow relations.
Putin
and President Barack Obama are expected to hold a summit in Moscow in
early September, right before both take part in the Group of 20 summit
in St. Petersburg, and the Snowden issue could overshadow both
gatherings.
Obama and Putin discussed Snowden,
among other issues, during a telephone call on Friday, the White House
said in a terse statement that provided no specifics of their
conversation about the NSA leaker. White House spokesman Jay Carney said
the call was planned several days ago, suggesting that it was unrelated
to Snowden's meeting with the activists.
Russia
so far has sidestepped the issue by claiming that it cannot take action
on Snowden because his presence in the transit zone puts him
technically outside Russian territory. But by agreeing to the condition
that he stop leaks, Snowden could force Russia's hand.
Friday's
meeting in the airport's transit zone included representatives of
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The presence of these
internationally respected organizations could add weight to Snowden's
asylum bid.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman
Jen Psaki said Friday the United States disapproved of Russia
facilitating what she called a "propaganda platform" for Snowden,
"despite the government's declarations of Russia's neutrality with
respect to Mr. Snowden."
On Saturday, Russian
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov aimed to keep up the appearance of
neutrality. "We are not having contact with Snowden," he said at a
meeting of a regional security organization in Kyrgyzstan, according to
Interfax.
