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  • Dec 27, 2014
  • Updated: 12:43am
Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden's Moscow sojourn stirs rumours of debriefing by Russians

Rumours of debriefing by Russians swirl as Kremlin bides its time and Washington fumes

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 25 June, 2013, 5:44pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 27 June, 2013, 7:45am


  • Yes: 94%
  • No: 6%
25 Jun 2013
  • Yes
  • No
Total number of votes recorded: 739


Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the first official acknowledgment of the whereabouts of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden on Tuesday and promptly rejected US pleas to turn him over.

Snowden, who is charged with violating American espionage laws, fled Hong Kong over the weekend, touching off a global guessing game over where he went and frustrating US efforts to bring him to justice.

Putin said Snowden is in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo airport and has not passed through Russian immigration, meaning he technically is not in Russia and thus is free to travel wherever he wants.

Russian President Vladimir Putin

After arriving on Sunday on a flight from Hong Kong, Snowden registered for a Havana-bound flight on Monday en route to Venezuela and then possible asylum in Ecuador, but he didn’t board the plane.


“Our special services never worked with Mr Snowden and aren’t working with him today,” Putin said at a news conference during a visit to Finland.

Because Moscow has no extradition agreement with Washington, it cannot meet the US request, he said.

“Mr Snowden is a free man, and the sooner he chooses his final destination the better it is for us and for him,” Putin said. “I hope it will not affect the businesslike character of our relations with the US and I hope that our partners will understand that.”

US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday that the US wants Russia to show respect for the rule of law and comply with common practices when it comes to fugitives from justice.

Video: US Secretary of State John Kerry called for Russia on Tuesday to hand over accused leaker Edward Snowden, saying Washington was not looking for "confrontation".

Putin’s staunch refusal to consider deportation shows his readiness to further challenge Washington at a time when US-Russian relations are already strained over Syria and other issues, including a Russian ban on adoptions by Americans.

“Just showing America that we don’t care about our relations, we are down to basically a cold war pattern: The enemy of your government is our friend,” said Masha Lipman of the Carnegie Moscow Centre.


Despite Putin’s denial, security experts believe Russia’s special services wouldn’t miss the chance to question a man who is believed to hold reams of classified US documents and could shed light on how the US intelligence agencies collect information.


“The security services would be happy to enter into contact with Mr Snowden,” Korotchenko said.

Russia also has relished using Snowden’s revelations to turn the tables on the US over its criticism of Russia’s rights record.

Putin compared Snowden to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been given asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy in London, saying that both men were labelled criminals but consider themselves rights activists and champions of freedom of information.







Earlier on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov rejected the US push to turn over Snowden, but he wouldn’t specify his whereabouts, saying only that he hadn’t crossed the Russian border.

Kerry called for “calm and reasonableness.”



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This article is now closed to comments

Reader John Adams:
You're terribly naïve with this silly statement: "it's true , we (US) admit it, and you knew it all along."
If the US admitted to violating HK law by spying on our citizens, our Justice Department must enforce the law. It has no choice but to subpoena your NSA scumbags. Yes, we have every right to hold Snowden as material witness and deny extradition. While we have just cause to request extradition, will the US comply with terms bound by treaty?
In the end, it will be all about realpolitik, nothing more and nothing less.
russia should tell the us government to go and take a flying fuxk!!!
John Adams
“Ask yourself a question: Should people like that be extradited so that they put them in prison?” said Putin “In any case, I would prefer not to deal with such issues. It’s like shearing a piglet: a lot of squealing and little wool.”
It's good to know that Russians have a healthy sense of humor ! :-)
PS : If ... IF... only the USA had had the good grace to say : "it's true , we admit it, and you knew it all along ( see today's SCMP op-ed by Martin Murhpy) , and Snowden did nothing other but that to confirm what you always suspected. Naughty boy for breaking his word to BAH, but OK we forgive him " ... then we might respect the USA for its over- zealous efforts in the war against terror even though they snoop on our every email and telecon.
But the USA didn't say that , so they lost our respect, sad to say
hard times !
It sounds like this Big Brother is threatening the public of the world and any nations/places that dare to host /accommodate her so-called fugitive,Mr.Edward Joseph Snowden ( a name that some US departments misspelt !) who,if really committed a crime of stealing government properties---the information/files that he revealed to the whole world in Hong Kong that we,all netizens in the world have long been closey monitored/cyber-spied by the National Security Agency of America which intelligence complexes(thousands of government and priviate institutions) employ millions of employees besides the military-industrial complexes such as Boeing and MD and ...Snowden is just a criminal of conscience only-------committing crimes out of conscience and for the well-beings of his countrymen in America and elsewhere plus all netizens in the whole world by telling them that their messsages on the internet and smart phones are not safe enough since there are two large-scale intelligence agencies spying on them ------the NSA in Meade, America and the GCHQ in the U.K. with every electronic means.
Buying a ticket, but not using it, to throw pursuers off! Sounds like a colleague's story of how his father escaped Germany in 1939!
hard times !
Mr.Snowden is wise and smart enough not to board the planned flight to Cuba as there were so many journalists on board the plane.And as his schedule was widely-known,his security was at great risk indeed.As most people know,the CIAs are everywhere ! Now Mr.Snowden is the most wanted man of the Obama administration.It is wise for him to stay at the transit area of Moscow's airport---never stepping on the soil of Russia which has no extradtion treaty with the Big Brother----America and President Putin has no reason to deport him nor detain/arrest him as he has committed no crimes there (just as he was innocent in our beloved Hong Kong and was free to leave with a valid travel document----our Immigration Dept.never received a notification from the US government that his passport had been revoked !).Well done ! President Putin who never gives in to US pressure ! The world is watching you --how you face the challenge of the No.1 military power in the world !
Mr. Snowden has been to China, and **** Cheney said he is suspicious because China is not a country a man should go to if he is interested in rights and liberty. And now Mr. Snowden stops over in Russia. They blame Russia of alleged complicity. Why the US always play a blame-shifting game, while it's themselves who make the mess?
hard times !
it is so-called, 'the thief yelled," Stop ! Thief !" Right ? ha ! ha !
hard times !
it is okay for our leaker-hero as he has spent over a month hiding in Hong Kong at different places here.It is paramount that Russia won't hand him to his archrival---the arrogant Obama administration which is threatening Hong Kong,China,Russia and those countries which are considering offering a political asylum to Mr.Snowden. Shame on Uncle Sam indeed ! If Snowden is forced to finally stay in Russia,it will be the biggest nightmare for the NSA which up to thousands of files are in his hand---and we can expect more secrets to come out soon ! Just wait and see.
The design of built-in battery in all apple product makes it can be monitored by the US government 24 hours a day.
apple product must have been built in with all sorts of remote monitoring software.
USA = cheater
A cheater is going to fall
While a schoolboy at HK SJC, there were many things about religion I was afraid to ask.
One of God’s many attributes is almighty. No doubt, God could build the highest wall that none could leap over. By the same token, God could jump over any barrier. Could God then build a wall so high that He could not jump across?
In a college philosophy course, I finally summoned up enough courage to debunk many dogmas of my belief system, including Catholicism, Confucianism and the foundation of government of the great American Republic.
An intelligent man determines his own destiny with personal choices. Every rational choice involves contravening forces that require conflict resolution – an optimal balance between individual and group survival. Morality is a derivative of culture and incontrovertible Nature. What are Snowden’s?
Absolute speech freedom in Democracy is just as absurd as theological dogmas about God’s attributes. Indeed, theology has no place in epistemology.
Here is a list of myths that could not get pass the observations of an intelligent 16-year old: Democracy doesn’t make wars, it respects human rights and freedoms; only elections produce good governments, and on and on.
In Arrow’s theorem on social choice, no election excluding dictatorship could logically rank preferences given choice of 3 or more candidates.
No matter, Democracy has become cult and religion. The Snowden affair has many facets far beyond what provincial Hong Kongers could comprehend.
Snowden versus Obama:
How the narrative has changed. Obama the man with Hope and Change, a so called community organizer, a so called constitutional scholar, a so called Nobel Peace Prize winner, and now to me he’s Darth Vader. Snowden to me symbolize youthful idealism, fighting against evil empire, a quintessential Luke Skywalker, the Man from La Mancha tilting against windmill. Whether the ending will be Hollywood and happy or reality and sad remains to be seen. I wish him well.
No Scarecrow
As an American (not a U.S. Citizen, learn the difference) I believe Mr. Snowden is a hero of the American people, whether they know it or not. U.S. Citizens, claiming to be Americans, have been dumbed down by their government, watched by their government, lied to, misled, and are being misrepresented in Congress.
I pray for the fall of the U.S. Empire and a return of the American Republic. Too bad we don't have whistle-blowers in the banks to expose the fraud of the Federal Reserve and its war against the American people. Take a look through "Fruits from a Poisonous Tree" by Mel Stamper and learn the truth about the evil bankers and their take-over of the American Republic.
There is a paradigm shift coming and it will start in America, hopefully, but I'll be supportive of any people, in any country that begin to expose the truth that has been shrouded by the lies of U.S. and European bankers and lawyers from the last 100 years.
Thankyou whymak
for keeping me in touch with intersting ideas
I concur, if it's your suggestion
that it's easier to discuss goD than Snowden
Men create goD
No man no goD
Just like the question about a fallen tree
in a prehistoric jungle
whether it made noises or vibrations
Existence is alpha
Fate is omega
Life is a different matter
For a very long time
I've bought Tolstoy's idea
that the purpose of men
is to live for other men
Being a Chinese, from my linguistic perspective
when talking about human beings
I make no distinction between women and men
What about Snowden?
That has to wait while I'm otherwise preoccupied
here at Berkeley
I know right! Those phones with power cords are much better. Batteries are obviously an invention by the Pentagon to assist their plan for world domination.

I also hear that Facebook is actually a ploy to steal your soul. Read the Terms and Conditions, it nothing less than satanic. And did you know that GPS is just another way of making sure we all stay away from secret US military sites?

Now excuse me, I have to go find my tin foil hat.
You must have been a popular boy in kindergarten.
My goodness. Two full days in the transit area of Sheremetyevo. The ordeal.

I give it another day or so before he cracks, surrenders and begs for a transfer to a CIA black site in the Ukraine to be water-boarded.
I am so glad you appreciated the sarcasm of my remark.


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