NSA leaker Edward Snowden is currently residing in Russian where officials have refused a US demand for his immediate extradition.
Russian officials admitted on Tuesday that Snowden had crossed the country’s border, but Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov says his country has nothing to do with Snowden’s future travel plans. Lavrov would not give the exact location of Edward Snowden, but he did take the time to lash out against Washington. According to Lavrov, US officials have threatened negative consequences against Moscow if the extradition order is not fulfilled. Lavrov says of those threats:
“We consider the attempts to accuse Russia of violation of U.S. laws and even some sort of conspiracy, which on top of all that are accompanied by threats, as absolutely ungrounded and unacceptable. There are no legal grounds for such conduct of U.S. officials.”
The US and Russia are already experiencing a heightened level of strain over Syria and Russian’s ban on adoptions by Americans.
Lavrov further adds:
“We have no relation to Mr. Snowden, his relations with American justice or his travels around the world. He chooses his route himself, and we have learned about it from the media.”
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange recently revealed that his agency has helped Edward Snowden file a request for political asylum with Ecuadorian officials.
Officials in Russia claim they only learned about Snowden’s flight into the country after it was reported by several news agencies.
What we know at this time is that Snowden booked a Havana-bound flight from Moscow on Monday. It is believed that Snowden will eventually land in Venezuela before fleeing to Ecuador.
News reports suggest that Edward Snowden remains in a transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.
If Ecuador does not grant the NSA leaker asylum Julian Assange says they have also applied for political status in Iceland and various other non-extraditing countries around the world.