Edward Snowden, the US whistleblower, has submitted an official request for temporary asylum in Russia, a pro-Kremlin lawyer said on Tuesday, increasing the possibility that the fugitive may finally leave Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.
Anatoly Kucherena said Mr Snowden had handed his request to a Federal Migration Services employee who came to the airport. “As Snowden cannot leave the transit zone of Sheremetyevo airport, he filled out all the necessary forms there, wrote his application and handed it over to a specially invited Federal Migration Service employee,” said Mr Kucherena, who first met Mr Snowden on Friday along with a delegation of human rights activists and lawyers.
Mr Kucherena said Mr Snowden had given a guarantee that he would not do anything to damage US interests – a condition President Vladimir Putin had set for Moscow granting him asylum.