Russia 'has not received' Snowden asylum bid
Russia has not received an asylum bid from fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, Moscow officials say.
In his first appearance since fleeing to a Moscow airport from Hong three weeks ago, Mr Snowden had said he would apply to Russia on Friday.
He wants to go to Latin America where he has been offered asylum.
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The director of the Russian migration service, Konstantin Romodanovsky, said on Saturday that no request had been made.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, meanwhile, told reporters at a foreign ministers' meeting in Kyrgyzstan: "We are not in contact with Snowden."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23300425
Strange that he didn't file the request yesterday as he stated he would do. What was the point of the PR event?
How the Snowden Affair Became a Freak Show
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023235597
= new reply since forum marked as read
Here, I speculate.
Russia is in a bit of a pickle. On the one hand, they have Snowden and they are getting a lot of flak for that. The US wants him extradited. The US is pressuring them (and threatening them), but they have bigger fish to fry. They want to keep Assad in power in Syria, for example, and they risk that by further antagonizing the United States. Russia doesn't want to extradite Snowden, on the other hand, for various reasons, not the least of which is their recent loss of superpower status. They want to show the world that they can still defy the US.
But, right now, they don't really want to defy the US. They need our cooperation on a host of issues. So, I suspect they told Snowden that they couldn't protect him for much longer and that he needed to get out. He responded by saying, "I can't get out. The US won't let me get out." Russia responded by giving him this opportunity (yesterday's "meeting"
to create international pressure on the US to allow him to leave and accept asylum offers from one or more countries. He overtly accepted "all" asylum offers yesterday.
He still needs a way to get out, and the US is doing its level best to insure that he has no way to get out of Russia.
Stalemate. A game of chicken. Who will blink first? No clue, but the Obama administration continues to insist that Russia extradite Snowden. Very soon, Russia may have no choice but to comply with the US's demands. It's clear that the voices of international human rights groups fall on deaf ears at the White House.
-Laelth
to create international pressure on the US to allow him to leave and accept asylum offers from one or more countries. He overtly accepted "all" asylum offers yesterday....I think the notion of temporary asylum is a farce.
