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12Jul13

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Fugitive Snowden to seek temporary asylum in Russia

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Former intelligence agency contractor Edward Snowden will seek temporary political asylum in Russia, according to human rights groups that met him on Friday.

The Kremlin told Snowden, who has been on the run since disclosing details of U.S. electronic surveillance programmes, that he should refrain from criticising the United States if he wants refuge in Russia.

Participants in a meeting with human rights groups at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, where he has been stranded in the transit area since June 23, said Snowden would seek to travel on to Latin America.

"Snowden is serious about obtaining political asylum in the Russian Federation," said Vyacheslav Nikonov, a pro-Kremlin lawmaker who attended the meeting.

President Vladimir Putin's spokesman repeated earlier conditions that Snowden should stop harming the interests of the United States if he wants asylum.

"We need to check this information, but as far as we know, he considers himself a defender of human rights and a campaigner for democratic ideals," spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters.

Nikonov said that this message had got through.

"He said it would be easy for him to fulfil this requirement," Nikonov told reporters. He added that Snowden did not consider his actions to be harmful to his country.

Peskov said he was unaware of a formal request for political asylum from Snowden. Separately, a Russian official said Snowden was expected to submit one.

A grainy picture of Snowden taken by one participant, with legal assistant Sarah Harrison to his right, soon surfaced on social media and news sites. He wore a grey jacket and looked in good health.

Snowden, 30, had not been seen in public since his arrival, and Russian officials have shown increasing impatience over his stay. But it has also become clear that Snowden has no clear route to a safe haven from Moscow. [ID:nL6N0FH1QI]

Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua have offered Snowden asylum, but he has not revealed his plans. Washington, which seeks to arrest Snowden on charges of espionage in divulging details of secret U.S. surveillance programmes, has revoked Snowden's passport and pressed nations not to take him in or help him travel.

"In recent weeks we have witnessed an unlawful campaign by officials in the U.S. Government to deny my right to seek and enjoy this asylum under Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," he wrote earlier to the rights groups.

"The scale of threatening behavior is without precedent," read the letter, a copy of which was posted on Facebook by Tanya Lokshina, deputy director of the Moscow office of New York-based Human Rights Watch.

[Source: By Lidia Kelly and Alessandra Prentice, Reuters, Moscow, 12Jul13]

Privacy and counterintelligence

This document has been published on 12Jul13 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.