Russian immigration officials said Moscow had yet to receive any asylum request from Edward Snowden, the U.S. whistleblower, who last Friday said he wanted temporary asylum in the country.
The former CIA analyst Snowden is holed up in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo International airport since June 23. Last Friday, in a closed-door-meeting with a group of lawyers, Russian diplomats and human rights activists, he revealed that he planned to request temporary asylum in Russia. But No formal asylum-request has come forth yet, according to the Russian officials.
Media reports say that this request is because Snowden is not sure he will be allowed to fly to Latin America through European airspace as the U.S. might pressurize these governments not to give permission. Also his passport had been revoked.
Out of the twenty asylum requests that he has made, only a few countries in Latin America have responded.
The American whistleblower initially flew to Hong Kong and then to Russia after the U.S. government issued an arrest warrant on charges of espionage and theft of government property.
The Obama administration has warned against providing asylum to Snowden. Any country doing so will definitely face a breach in relations with the United States
President Obama personally called Russian President Putin and the two leaders discussed the Snowden case.
However, Snowden announced Friday that he was ready to adhere to Putin's condition of not leaking any further surveillance reports, for asylum.
