White House says Moscow should hand back whistleblower and
hints Barack Obama might boycott Vladimir Putin meeting
The White House expressed anger and dismay on Thursday after Russia granted temporary asylum
to the American whistleblower Edward Snowden and
allowed him to leave the Moscow airport where he had been holed up for over a
month.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said the US was
"extremely disappointed" by the decision, almost certainly taken
personally by President Vladimir Putin. He said
Moscow should hand Snowden back and hinted that Barack Obama might now boycott
a bilateral meeting with Putin in September, due to be held when the US
president travels to Russia for a G20 summit.
Carney added that Snowden had arrived in both China and
Russia carrying with him thousands of top secret US documents. He said:
"Simply the possession of that kind of highly sensitive classified
information outside of secure areas is both a huge risk and a violation.
"As we know he's been in Russia now for many weeks.
There is a huge risk associated with … removing that information from secure
areas. You shouldn't do it, you can't do it, it's wrong."
With US-Russian relations now at a cold war-style low,
Snowden slipped out of Sheremetyevo airport on Thursday afternoon. His lawyer,
Anatoly Kucherena, said Russia's federal migration service had granted him
temporary asylum for one year. Snowden had left the airport to stay at an
undisclosed location with expatriate Americans, he added.
Putin made no immediate comment. But having weighed Russia's
options for some weeks, he appears to have decided that Snowden's propaganda
value outweighs any possible US repercussions. Obama's already floundering
attempts to "reset", or improve, relations with Moscow are in effect
over.
In a statement released by WikiLeaks, Snowden thanked the
Russian authorities and accused the US of behaving illegally. He made no
explicit mention of the trial of Bradley Manning, who this week was convicted
of espionage and faces 136 years in jail.
Snowden said: "Over the past eight weeks we have seen
the Obama administration show
no respect for international or domestic law, but in the end the law is
winning."
He added: "I thank the Russian Federation for granting
me asylum in accordance with its laws and international obligations."
Snowden has been given a temporary Russian travel document,
with his name in Cyrillic and a fresh passport photo. "This gave him the
right to temporary asylum on the territory of the Russian Federation, Kucherena
said, holding up a copy of the document. US authorities had cancelled his
American passport.
Security officials said Snowden officially crossed the
border into Russia from the airport's transit zone at about 3.30pm local time.
Russia had apparently not informed the US of the move in advance. The state TV
channel Rossiya 24 showed a photograph of Snowden's departure, as he clambered
into a grey unmarked car.
Despite being pictured from behind Snowden was instantly
recognisable wearing his trademark grey shirt and carrying a black backpack.
Next to him was Sarah Harrison, the WikiLeaks representative who accompanied
him last month on his flight from Hong Kong.
Kucherena declined to provide details on where Snowden was
heading, citing safety concerns. "Since he is the most hunted person in
the world, he will address the question of security today," he told
journalists.
The former NSA employee will himself
choose his place of residence and forms of protection, he added. Previously,
some speculated that the Russian government was keeping Snowden hidden,
although the whistleblower and his lawyer have denied that, adding that he has
had no contact with Russian security services.
The whistleblower's father, Lon Snowden, had reportedly been
planning to visit his son. Kucherena said on Wednesday that he was sending an
invitation to Snowden's father so he could obtain a Russian visa. Kucherena
told Rossiya 24 on Thursday that he would be speaking to the father later in
the day to arrange his visit.
US authorities have repeatedly called on Moscow to return the
fugitive to face charges in America. Last week America's attorney general, Eric
Holder, sent a letter to Russia's justice minister promising that Snowden would
not be tortured and that he would not face the death penalty if handed over to
the US.
Russian officials previously said they had no jurisdiction
to return Snowden, as he was not officially located on Russian territory, and
that the US had not filed an official extradition request.
The Kremlin did not immediately comment on Snowden's
temporary asylum. Putin has previously said repeatedly that to remain in
Russia, Snowden must stop activities harming the United States. His lawyer
suggested that fresh revelations published by the Guardian on Wednesday and
Thursday had come from documents that Snowden had already given the paper
before Putin made his comments.
Russia's decision has emboldened hawkish critics of the
White House, who have long dubbed Obama's attempts to improve relations with
Putin as naive and inappropriate. In a statement on his website, Senator John
McCain said: "Russia's action today is a disgrace and a deliberate effort
to embarrass the United States. It is a slap in the face of all Americans. Now
is the time to fundamentally rethink our relationship with Putin's
Russia."
He proposed in response to expand the Magnitsky Act list of
banned Russian officials, push for Georgia's acceptance into Nato and implement
US missile defence programmes in Europe.
At the White House, Carney made it clear that President
Obama was frustrated by the decision by Russia to allow Snowden to enter the
country, and that a planned presidential summit was now in jeopardy.
Obama is scheduled to travel to Russia in September for a
meeting of G20 leaders in St Petersburg. He also planned to meet Putin for a
bilateral summit during the trip in what would have been a sign of improving
relations between the two powers.
That meeting is now under review. "Obviously this is
not a positive development," Carney said. "We have a wide range of
interests with the Russians. We are evaluating the utility of the summit."
Amnesty International called for the focus to switch from
Snowden's asylum plight to the "sweeping nature and unlawfulness" of
the US government's surveillance programmes.
Widney Brown, senior director for international law and
policy at Amnesty, said in a statement: "Now that Edward Snowden has left
the airport and has protected status in Russia, the focus really needs to be on
the US government's surveillance programs. Snowden would not have needed
temporary asylum but for revealing the sweeping nature and unlawfulness of a
massive system of domestic and international surveillance by the United States
government."
[...]
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