Former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden has asked Moscow to extend his asylum in Russia, his lawyer said on Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.
Russia granted Snowden a one-year visa in August 2013 despite the United States wanting Moscow to send him home to face criminal charges, including espionage, for disclosing secret U.S Internet and telephone surveillance programs, the AP reported.
"We have carried out the procedure of getting temporary asylum. It expires on July 31," Interfax news agency quoted Snowden's Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, as saying, according to the AP. "Correspondingly, we have filed documents to extend his stay on the territory of Russia."
Kucherena said Snowden applied to Russia's migration authorities "a long time ago" since his one-year permit is expiring at the end of July, the AP reported. Kucherena could not immediately be reached for comment independently and the Russian Federal Migration Service declined comment.
Kucherena refused to say what kind of migration status his client is seeking, saying that it is up to the Federal Migration Service to make the decision, according to the AP.
President Vladimir Putin's refusal to return Snowden to the United States is one of many irritants in relations between Moscow and Washington, which are also as loggerheads over the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, human rights and defense issues, the AP reported.
Another lawyer for Snowden, whose precise whereabouts are a secret, said last month he expected Russia to extend the American's asylum beyond July, according to the AP.
Snowden was stranded in a Moscow airport last year on his way from Hong Kong to Cuba, shortly after he revealed the NSA's sprawling program of tapping phones. He received asylum in Russia, attracting the ire of the United States, the AP reported.
The American who leaked a trove of material from the super-secret National Security Agency has kept a low profile in Russia, has never been seen in public or talked to local journalists, according to the AP. His whereabouts are unknown.
