Russia: Won’t give up leaker

Snowden is free to choose destination, Putin tells U.S.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov rejected Tuesday in Moscow “attempts to accuse Russia of violating U.S. laws” as “ungrounded and unacceptable.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov rejected Tuesday in Moscow “attempts to accuse Russia of violating U.S. laws” as “ungrounded and unacceptable.”

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin bluntly rejected U.S. pleas to turn over National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, saying Tuesday that Snowden is free to travel wherever he wants and insisting that Russian security agencies haven’t contacted him.

Snowden is in the transit zone of a Moscow airport and has not passed through Russian immigration, Putin said, meaning he is not technically in Russia.

After arriving Sunday on a flight from Hong Kong, Snowden registered for a Havana-bound flight from Moscow on Monday en route to Venezuela and then possible asylum in Ecuador, but he didn’t board the plane.

Snowden’s whereabouts since then have been a mystery, and Putin’s comments were the first time Russia has made clear it knows where he is.

Speculation has been rife that Russian security agencies might want to keep Snowden in Russia for a more thorough debriefing, but Putin denied that.

“Our special services never worked with Mr. Snowden and aren’t working with him today,” Putin said at a news conference during a visit to Finland.

Putin said that because there is no extradition agreement with the U.S., it couldn’t meet the U.S. request.

“Mr. Snowden is a free man, and the sooner he chooses his final destination the better it is for us and for him,” Putin said. “I hope it will not affect the businesslike character of our relations with the U.S., and I hope that our partners will understand that.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday that though the United States does not have an extradition treaty with Russia, it wants Moscow to comply with common law practices between countries where fugitives are concerned.

“We’re following all the appropriate legal channels and working with various other countries to make sure that the rule of law is observed,” President Barack Obama told reporters.

Putin’s staunch refusal to consider deporting Snowden shows the Russian president’s readiness to further challenge Washington at a time when U.S.-Russian relations already are strained over Syria and a Russian ban on adoptions by Americans.

A Kremlin decision to provide even temporary shelter and safe transit to Snowden would anger officials in Washington. And despite Putin’s denial, security experts believe the Russian special services wouldn’t miss the chance to question a man who is believed to hold reams of classified U.S. documents and can shed light on how the U.S. intelligence agencies collect information.

Igor Korotchenko, director of the Center for Global Arms Trade and editor of National Defense Magazine, said Snowden would be of particular interest because little is known about digital espionage.

“The security services would be happy to enter into contact with Mr. Snowden,” Korotchenko said.

Russia also relished using Snowden’s revelations to try to turn the tables on U.S. criticism of Russia’s rights record.

Putin compared Snowden to WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, who has been provided asylum in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, saying that both men were labeled criminals but consider themselves rights activists and champions of freedom of information.

“Ask yourself a question: Should people like that be extradited so that they put them in prison or not?” he said. “In any case, I would prefer not to deal with such issues. It’s like shearing a piglet: a lot of squealing and little wool.”

In an apparent reference to claims that Moscow could have played a role in Snowden’s exit from Hong Kong, he said that his arrival was a “complete surprise” and dismissed accusations against Russia as “ravings and sheer nonsense.”

“He doesn’t need a visa or any other documents, and as a transit passenger he has the right to buy a ticket and fly wherever he wants,” Putin said.

Russian news media had reported that Snowden remained in a transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, which is separate from the regular departure zones. He has not been seen by any of the journalists who have been roaming the airport in search of him.

Legally, an arriving air passenger only crosses the border after clearing immigration checks.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov rejected the U.S. push for Snowden’s extradition earlier Tuesday, but wouldn’t specify his whereabouts, saying only that he hasn’t crossed the Russian border.

“We consider the attempts to accuse Russia of violating U.S. laws and even some sort of conspiracy, which on top of all that are accompanied by threats, as absolutely ungrounded and unacceptable,” Lavrov said. “There are no legal grounds for such conduct by U.S. officials.”

U.S. and Ecuadorean officials had said they believed Snowden was still in Russia.

Kerry called for “calm and reasonableness.”

“We would hope that Russia would not side with someone who is ‘a fugitive’ from justice,’ ” Kerry said at a news conference in Saudi Arabia.

The U.S. has revoked Snowden’s passport.

A representative of WikiLeaks has been traveling with Snowden, and the organization is believed to be assisting him in arranging asylum. Assange, the group’s founder, said Monday that Snowden was only passing through Russia and had applied for asylum in Ecuador, Iceland and possibly other countries.

Ecuador confirmed that it had received an asylum request and had provided documents allowing Snowden to travel there.

A high-ranking Ecuadorean official told The Associated Press that Russia and Ecuador were discussing where Snowden could go, saying the process could take days. He also said Ecuador’s ambassador to Moscow had not seen or spoken to Snowden. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

Ecuador’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, hailed Snowden on Monday as “a man attempting to bring light and transparency to facts that affect everyone’s fundamental liberties.”

Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa, wrote on his Twitter account, “We will analyze very responsibly the Snowden case and with absolute sovereignty will make the decision we consider the most appropriate.”

The Kremlin has previously said Russia would be ready to consider Snowden’s request for asylum.

Snowden is a former CIA employee who later was hired as a contractor for the National Security Agency. In that job, he gained access to documents that he gave to newspapers the Guardian and The Washington Post to expose what he contends are privacy violations by an authoritarian government.

Also on Tuesday, China brushed aside the Obama administration’s warning that allowing Snowden to leave Hong Kong would have negative consequences, and said that the relationship between the United States and China should continue unimpeded.

On Monday, the White House effectively put responsibility for Snowden’s departure on Beijing, not on the Hong Kong authorities, although the Obama administration had made its request for Snowden’s arrest to Hong Kong.

At a Foreign Ministry briefing Tuesday, a spokesman called the warning by the White House and Kerry “groundless.” The administration’s comments “really make people wonder,” said the spokesman, Hua Chunying.

China expects an important annual meeting between the United States and China, known as the Security and Economic Dialogue, to proceed as scheduled for July in Washington, Hua said.

She reiterated official Chinese criticism of the United States for public statements that have accused China of cyber-attacks against U.S. interests.

“I’d like to advise these people to hold up a mirror, reflect and take care of their own situation first,” she said.

Members of Congress so far have focused their anger on China and Russia, not on Obama’s inability to get either country to abide by U.S. demands. However, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said in an interview with CNN on Monday that he was starting to wonder why the president hasn’t been “more forceful in dealing with foreign leaders.”

Sen. John McCain, who lost to Obama in the 2008 presidential election, echoed that concern Tuesday, telling CNN that, “We’ve got to start dealing with Vladimir Putin for what he is.”

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton echoed the White House’s frustration with China. “That kind of action is not only detrimental to the U.S.-China relationship, but it sets a bad precedent that could unravel the intricate international agreements about how countries respect the laws - and particularly the extradition treaties,” the possible 2016 presidential contender told an audience in Los Angeles.

U.S. intelligence agencies are investigating whether Snowden’s leaks may be a Chinese intelligence operation or whether China might have used his concerns about U.S. surveillance practices to exploit him, according to four American officials.

The officials emphasized there’s no hard evidence yet that Snowden was a Chinese agent or that China helped plan his flights to Hong Kong and then to Moscow, directly or through a witting or unwitting intermediary. Rather, they are duty-bound to probe such a worst-case scenario for the U.S., said the officials, who are familiar with the case and asked not to be identified to discuss classified intelligence.

Meanwhile, a former spy agency official who was the target of a government leak investigation said Tuesday he feels a “significant kinship” with Snowden.

Thomas Drake, who was a top National Security Agency official, assailed the Obama administration for what he called an “unprecedented and ruthless campaign” against leakers of secret government information.

The government ended up dropping its felony espionage case against Drake, and he received a year’s probation in 2011 after acknowledging that he gave inside information to The Baltimore Sun about a major government electronic espionage program. The judge in the case criticized the government for putting him through “four years of hell.” Information for this article was contributed by Matti Huuhtanen, Vladimir Isachenkov, Michael Weissenstein, Gonzalo Solano, Julie Pace and Jennifer C. Kerr of The Associated Press; by Jane Perlez, Chris Buckley, David M. Herszenhorn, Peter Baker and Rick Gladstone of The New York Times and by Bloomberg News staff.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 06/26/2013

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