Edward Snowden can stay in Russia if he stops issuing leaks that damage the United States, the Kremlin said Friday after the US fugitive told rights activists in a Moscow airport that he is seeking asylum in Russia.
“Mr Snowden could hypothetically stay in Russia if he: first, completely stops the activities harming our American partners and US-Russian relations and second, if he asks for this himself,” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in comments quoted by Russian news agencies.
According to lawyer Genri Reznik who was present at a meeting at Moscow airport with Snowden and spoke to reporters afterwards, the fugitive “promised that he would not act to harm the United States”.
Meanwhile, fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden on Friday told a group of activists in a meeting at a Moscow airport that he wanted to claim asylum in Russia because he is unable to fly on anywhere else.
Human Rights Watch representative Tanya lokshina told the Interfax news agency that Snowden told participants “he wants to stay here” while public chamber state advisory body member Olga Kostina told ITAR-TASS that Snowden would request asylum in Russia.
Meanwhile, in Washington, US President Barack Obama, while meeting senior Chinese officials at their annual wide-ranging talks, “expressed his disappointment and concern” over the Snowden case, the White House said in a statement.
Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, one of the main US officials in the talks, said Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed at their summit last month at the California resort of Sunnylands to cooperate over problems.