Within hours of fugitive American whistleblower Edward Snowden announcing on Friday his plan to seek temporary asylum in Russia, US President Barack Obama called his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to discuss his “status”.
“The two leaders noted the importance of US-Russian bilateral relations and discussed a range of security and bilateral issues, including the status of Edward Snowden and cooperation on counterterrorism in the lead-up to the Sochi Winter Olympics,” a White House statement said.
While no further details were given out on their discussion, a White House spokesman, at a media briefing earlier, criticised Russia for giving Snowden a “propaganda platform”. The reference was to Snowden’s meeting with human rights activists at Moscow airport’s transit zone and announcement of his push for Russian asylum.
“I would simply say that providing a propaganda platform for Mr. Snowden runs counter to the Russian Government’s previous declarations of Russia’s neutrality and that they have no control over his presence in the airport,” spokesman Jay Carney said, adding: “It’s also incompatible with Russian assurances that they do not want Mr. Snowden to further damage US interests.”
He said the US position on Snowden and the felony charges against him, as also the belief that he should be returned to the US to face those charges, have been communicated to a number of countries, including Russia.
“We continue to discuss with Russia our strongly held view that there is absolute legal justification for him to be expelled, for him to be returned to the United States to face the charges that have been brought against him for the unauthorized leaking of classified information,” Carney said.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki also voiced disappointment that “Russian officials and agencies facilitated this meeting today by allowing these activists and representatives into the Moscow airport’s transit zone to meet with Mr. Snowden”.
Reports from Moscow quoted senior Kremlin officials as saying on Saturday that Russia’s Federal Migration Service had not yet received a formal appeal for asylum from Snowden.
In an apparent response to the White House spokesman’s comment about affording Snowden a propaganda platform, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey V. lavrov asserted that the Government has had no contact with Snowden.
Although Venezuela and Bolivia have offered asylum, Snowden told rights activists that he wanted temporary asylum in Russia until he was able to travel to latin America.