Putin:
Snowden still in Moscow airport, won't be extradited, free to go
anywhere
Former
NSA contractor Snowden remains in the transit zone of a Moscow
airport. President Putin said that Snowden never crossed the Russian
border and doesn’t fall under any extradition treaty. He called
accusations against Russia “nonsense and rubbish.”
RT,
25
June, 2013
“It
is true that Snowden has arrived to Moscow, and it really came as a
surprise for us. He arrived as a transit passenger, and didn't need a
[Russian] visa, or any other documents. As a transit passenger he is
entitled to buy a ticket and fly to wherever he wants,” Vladimir
Putin said as he spoke to journalists in Finland.
Edward
Snowden is still at the transit area of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo
Airport, Putin stressed. He said that any accusations against Russia
are “nonsense and rubbish,” as the former NSA contractor “has
not crossed” the Russian border.
The
President also pointed out that there is no extradition treaty
between Russia and the US, which makes it impossible to extradite
people like Snowden.
“We
can only extradite any foreign citizens to such countries with which
we have signed the appropriate international agreements on criminal
extradition,” he explained.
Snowden
“has not committed any crime” on Russian soil, Putin added.
Russian security agencies “have never worked with and are not
working with” the former CIA employee, he also stressed.
"Snowden
is a free person. The sooner he chooses his final destination, the
better it is for him and Russia," Putin said.
He
also expressed hope that the Snowden saga would not have any negative
impact on Russian-American relations and that the US "will
understand this.”
Putin
also commented on the situation with WikiLeaks founder Julian
Assange, who has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to
avoid extradition to Sweden, fearing that he would then be extradited
to the US.
“Just
like Snowden, he considers himself a rights advocate and fights for
sharing information. Ask yourself: should or should not people like
these be extradited to be later put to jail?” the President asked.
“In
any case, I would like not to deal with such issues because it is
like shearing a pig: there's lots of squealing and little fleece,”
he said.
Washington
again requested that Moscow expel Snowden on Tuesday, urging Russia
to build upon its bilateral law enforcement cooperation with the US.
Russia
has “clear legal basis” to expel the NSA leaker, National
Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement. She
added that Snowden would face espionage charges in the US, even
without an extradition treaty.
The
White House, along with Putin, doesn’t want the issue to negatively
impact the nations’ bilateral relations, Hayden said.
Snowden
hid copies of secret NSA documents in case something happens to him
A
trove of classified documents supplied to The Guardian newspaper by
NSA leaker Edward Snowden has been copied and shared with several
people around the globe, journalist Glenn Greenwald told The Daily
Beast on Tuesday.
RT,
25
June, 2013
Greenwald,
the Guardian reporter who first began publishing National Security
Agency documents earlier this month after meeting with the former
intelligence contractor, told journalist Eli Lake that Snowden made
arrangements to ensure others around the world have encrypted copies
of that information should any circumstances allow the data or its
source to be compromised.
Snowden
“has taken extreme precautions to make sure many different people
around the world have these archives to insure the stories will
inevitably be published,” Greenwald said. He added that the files
are “highly encrypted” and corresponding passwords to render them
readable have not yet been distributed.
According
to Lake, Greenwald said, “if anything happens at all to Edward
Snowden, he told me he has arranged for them to get access to the
full archives.” Greenwald previously claimed that Snowden provided
him with the archives of "thousands" of documents, dozens
of which he considered to be newsworthy. Revelations published thus
far by The Guardian and attributed to Snowden have generated
international headlines and responses from presidential
administrations worldwide.
The
latest news from Greenwald comes in the midst of an international
manhunt for Snowden that has made awkward the relations between the
United States and other nations around the globe. The US unsealed an
indictment against Snowden on Friday, but has been unable to
extradite him to the country where he faces charges of espionage.
Snowden
was reportedly in Hong Kong at the time his indictment went public
and was alleged to be in Moscow hours later. Representatives for US
President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin both say
Snowden is in Moscow, and the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks says the
leaker has sought asylum from Ecuador, Iceland and perhaps elsewhere.
“We
are aware of where Mr. Snowden is,” WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange
said in a conference call on Monday. “He is in a safe place and his
spirits are high. Due to the bellicose threats coming from the US
administration we cannot go into further detail at this time.”
The
US has lambasted Hong Kong with failing to comply with what America
considers a lawful arrest, and Russia will not cooperate with
attempts for extradition. White House press secretary Jay Carney said
earlier this week that Hong Kong’s failure to act has already
strained the relationship between the US and China.
Another
relationship — the one between Snowden and Greenwald — has begun
to emerge as a contested topic within the conversation as well in
recent days. The possibility of charging Greenwald with publishing
the classified documents has been discussed by politicians, pundits
and the press, and the he told The Daily Beast that he’s likely
having his every move watched by Washington.
“I
would be shocked if the US government were not trying to access the
information on my computer,” Greenwald said. “I carry my
computers and data with me everywhere I go.”
Elsewhere
in his interview with Lake, Greenwald explained that one potential
lapse almost led to the loss of the intelligence.
“When
I was in Hong Kong, I spoke to my partner in Rio via Skype and told
him I would send an electronic encrypted copy of the documents,”
Greenwald said. “I did not end up doing it. Two days later his
laptop was stolen from our house and nothing else was taken. Nothing
like that has happened before. I am not saying it’s connected to
this, but obviously the possibility exists.”
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