Russia Says No Asylum Request Yet Received from Edward Snowden

Russia Says No Asylum Request Yet Received from Edward Snowden

NSA leaker Edward Snowden has not yet requested temporary asylum from Russia, after his appeal for assistance from human rights groups Friday.

From the NY Times:

Senior Kremlin officials said Saturday that Russia’s Federal Migration Service had not yet received a formal appeal for asylum from Edward J. Snowden. And the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, insisted that the government had had no contact with him — a curious statement given the government’s clear role in arranging a meeting at Sheremetyevo airport here in Moscow on Friday between Mr. Snowden and lawyers and human rights advocates.

[…]

Mr. Snowden on Friday appealed to the human rights advocates to intervene on his behalf with the Russian government, though it is unclear how influential they can be, given that at least two of the groups represented — Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch — have had their Moscow offices raided by the authorities in recent months, and some of their local representatives have faced personal threats apparently aimed at curtailing their work.

Russian President Vladimir Putin previously stated that Snowden could not stay in the country unless he “stopped his work aimed at harming our American partners.”

Meanwhile, Reuters reported Saturday that Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald told an Argentinean news outlet Snowden has information that could prove to be the US’ “worst nightmare.”  Greenwald said that the NSA leaker is also in possession of information that details some of the specific inner-workings of US surveillance activities on Latin American countries, including claims that a US telecommunications company that has contracts with telecommunications companies in most Latin American countries is helping to facilitate some of those activities.

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