Whistle-blower Snowden still at Moscow airport

A former United States spy agency contractor sought by Washington on espionage charges appeared to still be in hiding at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport on Wednesday and the national airline said he is not booked on any of its flights over the next three days.

Edward Snowden had fled to Hong Kong after leaking details of secret US government surveillance programs.

He flew to Moscow on Sunday, evading a US extradition request. Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed on Tuesday that Snowden was in the transit area at the airport and said he had no intention of handing him to Washington.

An Aeroflot representative at the airport's transfer desk, asked whether Snowden and his legal adviser Sarah Harrison were due to fly out on Wednesday, said: "They are not flying today and not over the next three days. They are not in the system."

Safe and well

In a brief statement on Wednesday, WikiLeaks said Snowden is safe and well but gave no indication of how the information was obtained, doing little to clear up the mystery over his whereabouts.

The website, which said it is helping Snowden to seek asylum, has declined to reveal details about his plans, citing security concerns. The group did not return messages on Wednesday.

On Monday it denied reports that Snowden was being debriefed by Russian intelligence.

He has not been seen in public but Russian officials say he is at the airport awaiting a response to an appeal for asylum in Ecuador. The logical route to be taken - and one for which he at one point had a reservation - would be an Aeroflot flight via Havana.

The choice of alternative flights, while Washington presses other countries not to take him in or to arrest him on arrival, would be limited.

Putin denied Snowden is being interviewed by Russian intelligence and said any US accusations that Moscow is aiding him are "ravings and rubbish".

This prompted a new extradition demand by Washington, which said there is a clear legal basis to do so.

The row threatens to further fray ties between the US and Russia, which have argued over human rights and Putin's treatment of opponents in a year-old third term and have squared off over the Syrian conflict in the UN Security Council.

Ecuador's embassy in the US said on Wednesday that Washington must "submit its position" regarding Snowden to the Ecuadorian government in writing as it considers the whistle-blower's request for asylum.

Meanwhile, Ecuador's foreign minister said on Wednesday that his government could take months to decide whether to grant asylum to Snowden.

Reuters-AFP-AP

(China Daily 06/27/2013 page9)