Edward Snowden, the man responsible for leaking the existence of the National Security Agency's extensive surveillance program, has formally applied for temporary political asylum in Russia on the same day that a group of 18 plaintiffs filed suit against the NSA claiming their surveillance program is illegal, according to Reuters.
Snowden has been trapped at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport with no way to leave since late June. Since the United States revoked Snowden's passport and since Snowden does not have a visa to enter Russia he has been unable to leave the airport.
The Federal Migration Service confirmed that Snowden filed the paperwork to apply for asylum in Russia on Tuesday. Anatoly Kucherena, a Russian lawyer with connections in the Kremlin, helped facilitate the application, according to the BBC.
"(Snowden) reached the conclusion that he needs to write an application for temporary asylum, and this procedure has just been done," Kucherena told the BBC. "For now he is not going anywhere. For now he plans to stay in Russia."
Even if Snowden receives the proper paperwork to travel it is thought that some European countries would not allow a plane with him on board to pass through their airspace, further complicating any plans that Snowden might have had to receive permanent asylum in one of the Latin American countries that has offered it to him, USA Today reported.
White House spokesman Jay Carney has been clear in his official statements that the White House would like their allies to return Snowden to the U.S. as soon as possible.
"Mr. Snowden should not be allowed to engage in further international travel except as necessary to return to the United States," Carney said. "He is not a human rights activist. He is not a dissident. He's accused of leaking classified information."
Since Snowden's arrival in Russia he has been a bane to President Vladimir Putin. Putin knows that if Russia grants asylum to the NSA whistle-blower that it will chill already icy relations with the U.S. Putin believes that the reason Snowden was trapped in Russia is that the U.S. intimidated other countries from accepting him so he became stuck in Moscow, according to CBS News.
"Such a present to us. Merry Christmas," Putin joked about Snowden when speaking to students.
If Russia is to grant asylum to Snowden it will not be Putin's decision but that of a much lower level Russian governmental employee, a Russian official told the BBC. Although it's hard to imagine the lower official making a decision that went contrary to what the charismatic president wants.
In California a motley crew of plaintiffs filed a federal lawsuit against the NSA for the dragnet surveillance that was revealed by Snowden. The diverse group is represented by the Electronics Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group that works to ensure data privacy, according to Reuters.
The lawsuit is seeking an injunction to stop the NSA's "Associational Tracking Program," a program that logs call information from all major telephone companies. The group includes a Unitarian church, a gun rights organization, an Islamic advocacy group and marijuana legalization advocates, according to Reuters.
