Snowden agrees to asylum in Venezuela: top lawmaker

[PeterCriss]

Snowden agrees to asylum in Venezuela: top lawmaker
AFP Updated July 10, 2013, 1:40 am

MOSCOW (AFP) - Fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, who has been holed up in a Moscow airport for more than two weeks, has agreed to an offer of asylum from Venezuela, a top Russian lawmaker said on Twitter on Tuesday before removing the post.

"As was expected, Snowden agreed to (Venezuelan President Nicolas) Maduro's offer of political asylum," tweeted Alexei Pushkov, head of the Russian lower house of parliament's international affairs committee.

"Apparently this option looked like the most reliable one to Snowden."

The announcement remained on his Twitter feed for around half an hour before it was removed.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman declined to comment, saying all questions should be directed to Pushkov.

"Turn to them for all the questions," Dmitry Peskov said tersely.

After removing his original post, Pushkov said in a separate message that he had learnt of the most recent development around Snowden from a news report on Russian state television channel Vesti 24.

He later rephrased his original message, saying Snowden had agreed to asylum in Venezula, according to a Vesti 24 report.

"Venezuela finally received an answer from the CIA former agent," a news report on the channel's website said earlier Tuesday.

"The President of the Latin American country, Nicolas Maduro, received an official political asylum request from Edward Snowden," said the channel.

On Monday, Maduro called on Snowden to decide if he wanted to fly to Caracas.

"We have received the asylum request letter," Maduro told reporters in Caracas after he offered the 30-year-old former National Security Agency contractor asylum along with the leaders of Bolivia and Nicaragua.

"He will have to decide when he flies, if he finally wants to fly here," Maduro said. He called the offers from the three Latin American nations "collective humanitarian political asylum."

It remains unclear how the world's most famous refugee would be able to leave the transit zone of Sheremetyevo Airport, where he has been marooned without valid documents since he arrived from Hong Kong on June 23.

There are no direct flights between Moscow and Caracas. The quickest way to get to Venezuela would be to fly via Havana.

A spokeswoman for Russian national carrier Aeroflot, Irina Danenberg, said she was not aware if Snowden had been on the flight to Havana that left Moscow earlier Tuesday. "I have no clue," she said.

There are no direct flights to Havana from Moscow on Wednesday.

Pushkov has been a vocal commentator of the Snowden affair, saying earlier that Venezuela was "possibly his last chance to receive political asylum."

 

[PeterCriss]

Russian tweet on Snowden asylum decision deleted
Reuters July 10, 2013, 12:44 am

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A tweet in which a senior Russian lawmaker said former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden had accepted Venezuela's offer of asylum was deleted from his Twitter feed shortly after it was posted on Tuesday.

The lawmaker, Alexei Pushkov, later tweeted that he had seen the news on state-run Russian television channel Rossiya-24, but a representative of Rossiya-24 said it had been referring to Pushkov's initial tweet.

Pushkov, the pro-Kremlin chairman of the international affairs committee in the lower parliament house, could not immediately be reached for comment.

A Russian Foreign Ministry official declined immediate comment and the Venezuelan embassy in Moscow could not immediately be reached.

Snowden, who is wanted in the United States on espionage charges after revealing details of secret surveillance programmes, is believed to be holed up in the transit area at a Moscow airport where he arrived on June 23 from Hong Kong.

He has appealed to about 20 countries for asylum and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Friday that he had decided to offer the 30-year-old American fugitive asylum. Nicaragua and Bolivia also have said they would take him in.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Snowden should choose a final destination and go there as soon as possible, but it is unclear how he would get to any of the Latin American countries that have offered him asylum.

There are no direct flights from Moscow to Venezuela, Nicaragua or Bolivia, and U.S. authorities have urged nations around the world not to give Snowden refuge.

(Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Michael Roddy)