Snowden Seeks to Study Russian Culture if Granted Asylum
Anatoly Kucherena, the Russian lawyer assisting former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, speaks to the media at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow, July 24, 2013. Snowden’s hopes of leaving Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport for the first time in a month on Wednesday were dashed when he failed to secure permission from Russia to leave. REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva (RUSSIA – Tags: POLITICS) – RTX11XHV
There’s another flurry of Snowden news. For a little while today, it looked like the fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden would finally get out of the airport transit zone in Russia.
He’s been holed up there for a month.
But for now, it seems Snowden’s not going anywhere according to Snowden’s lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena.
He told reporters that despite reports to the contrary, Snowden has not received documents that would have allowed him to leave the airport transit zone.
He’s applied for temporary asylum in Russia.
The US wants him extradited to face charges in connection with leaking classified documents.
Today, Secretary of State John Kerry warned Russia against letting Snowden stay there.
But Snowden’s lawyer says that’s what his client wants to do.
“He intends to remain in Russia and study Russian culture,” he says. “He would like to see more of Russia, to find work in the future and to settle his life here somehow.”