Russia faces US ire over Snowden asylum issue

MOSCOW: Russia on Friday faced the wrath of the United States after granting asylum to fugitive intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, who was settling into a safe house after over five weeks marooned into a Moscow airport transit zone.
The whereabouts of Snowden, who is wanted by the United States after leaking details of vast US surveillance programs, remained a mystery with his lawyer refusing to disclose the location for security reasons.
The Russian lawyer for Edward Snowden says the National Security Agency leaker has determined where he will live, but is still figuring out what he will do during his stay in Russia. Russia granted Snowden temporary asylum on Thursday, allowing him to leave the Moscow airport where he had been holed up for almost six weeks. He can now remain in Russia for at least a year as he evades charges of espionage in the United States.
His lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, told Russian news agencies on Friday that Snowden “is in a safe place,” but the location will remain secret out of concerns for his security. Kucherena says as soon as Snowden decides what he will do in Russia, he will announce his decision himself.
The White House said it was “extremely disappointed” by Moscow’s decision to grant Snowden asylum, adding that it would now review the need for a planned summit between President Barack Obama and President Vladimir Putin in September.
Nicknamed “the invisible man” by journalists, the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor on Thursday walked out of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport unnoticed and took a taxi to a secret location. He now has temporary asylum in Russia for a year. On Friday, the pro-Kremlin Life News website published a photograph showing Snowden smiling broadly as he walked through the airport arrivals area with a rucksack on his back and carrying another bag.