Lawyer for NSA whistleblower submits asylum request to Russia's federal migration service
National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden has submitted a request for temporary asylum in Russia, his lawyer has said.
Anatoly Kucherena, a lawyer who is a member of the Public Chamber, a Kremlin advisory body, said that Snowden submitted the asylum request to Russia's federal migration service. The service had no immediate comment.
Kucherena told the Associated Press that he met Snowden in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport and Snowden made the request after the meeting.
He said Russian law contains no specific time frame for considering an asylum request.
Snowden has been stuck in Sheremetyevo's transit zone since he arrived on a flight from Hong Kong on 23 June. On Friday, he said at a meeting with Russian rights activists and public figures, which Kucherena attended, that he would seek at least temporary refuge in Russia until he could fly to one of the Latin American nations that have offered him asylum.
It was not immediately clear why it took Snowden so long to formally submit the request.
Snowden's stay in Russia has strained already chilly relations between Moscow and Washington. Granting him asylum would further aggravate tensions with Washington less than two months before Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, and the US president, Barack Obama, are to meet in Moscow and again at the G20 summit in St Petersburg.
On Monday, Putin described Snowden's arrival as an unwelcome present foisted on Russia by the United States. He said that Snowden flew to Moscow intending only to transit to another country, but that the US intimidated other countries into refusing to accept him, effectively blocking the fugitive from flying further.
Snowden had previously sought Russian asylum, which Putin said would be granted only if he agreed not to leak more information. Snowden then withdrew the bid, the Kremlin said.
During Friday's meeting in Sheremetyevo's transit zone, Snowden argued that he had not hurt US interests in the past and has no intention of doing so.
Putin did not say on Monday if that would be sufficient grounds for asylum, adding that Snowden apparently did not want to stay in Russia permanently.
Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua have offered Snowden asylum, but getting there from Moscow without passing through US airspace or that of Washington's allies would be difficult. The US has annulled his passport.