Edward Snowden Wants Asylum In Russia

Intelligence services whistleblower Edward Snowden plans to request asylum in Russia, accusing the US of trying to block him from travelling to other countries.

Snowden remarks came in a statement after closed-door talks with human rights groups and lawyers at the Moscow airport where he has been holed up for weeks.

In a statement released after the 45-minute meeting, Snowden said: "That moral decision to tell the public about spying that affects all of us has been costly, but it was the right thing to do and I have no regrets."

He said he had given up his family and a "home in paradise" to put an end to what he said was a "serious violation of the law".

"I did not seek to enrich myself. I did not seek to sell US secrets. I did not partner with any foreign government to guarantee my safety," he said in the statement.

Pic: Courtesy of Tatyana Lokshina/Human Rights Watch

"Instead, I took what I knew to the public, so what affects all of us can be discussed by all of us in the light of day, and I asked the world for justice."

Snowden is wanted by the US on espionage charges over a series of leaks about spying programmes, with his most recent claims involving collaboration between Microsoft and American intelligence services.

The talks included representatives of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

A picture of Snowden at the meeting, taken by Human Rights Watch representative Tanya Lokshina, shows him with WikiLeaks representative Sarah Harrison on his right. 

It was the first time that he had been seen since the scandal broke.

He seemed nervous, but in apparently good health, according to one of the participant, Duma member Vyacheslav Nikonov.

Politician Vyacheslav Nikonov took part in the meeting

The former NSA contractor, 30, accuses Washington of waging a campaign to stop him from leaving Russia and getting asylum.

"The government and intelligence services of the United States of America have attempted to make an example of me, a warning to all others who might speak out as I have."

"I have been made stateless and hounded for my act of political expression," the statement said.

Snowden said he was grateful for those countries, including Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua, which offered support and asylum, saying he accepted all offers that had been extended and any future one.

But, he said, given the "unlawful threat" posed by the US and his inability to reach those countries, he planned to formally request asylum in Russia until he can legally travel to Latin America.

Protesters have shown their support for Snowden

Austrian authorities last week searched the Bolivian president's plane when it was diverted to Vienna because the US suspected Snowden was on board.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin said Snowden might be allowed to stay in Russia if he stops releasing leaks that would damage the US or Russia-US relations, repeating conditions the Kremlin had set out earlier.

Both Mr Nikonov and Genri Reznik, a lawyer who participated in the meeting, said Snowden was willing to stop leaks.

"He said he was informed of this condition and that he can easily accept it. He does not intend to damage US interests given that he is a patriot of his country," Mr Nikonov said.

Snowden fled to Moscow from Hong Kong on June 23 and has been in limbo in Sheremetyevo airport's transit area despite the offers for asylum.

The US has revoked his passport, and doubts have also been raised about whether Snowden could fly from Moscow to any of those countries without passing through the airspace of the US or its allies.

He is seeking to avoid extradition after divulging embarrassing evidence about the activities of US spies, as well as the British eavesdropping agency GCHQ, to newspapers including The Guardian.

The latest files said Microsoft helped America's National Security Agency (NSA) to circumvent encryption so it could view web chats on the Outlook.com portal, which is replacing Hotmail.

Evidence seen by the paper said Microsoft also worked to give the NSA easier access to its cloud storage service SkyDrive, which has more than 250 million users. And by July 2012, nine months after Microsoft bought Skype, the Prism intelligence programme was collecting triple the amount of Skype video calls.

Entrances were guarded during the meeting at the airport

Microsoft told the paper it only provides information about users when demanded to do so by the government.

Snowden's files have also revealed the NSA claimed to have access to the servers of web firms including Apple, Google, Facebook and Yahoo, while GCHQ scans vast amounts of internet traffic through a system of fibre-optic cables.

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