WASHINGTON: America is pivoting to Asia and focused on the Mideast. Yet the region Secretary of State John Kerry once called the US “backyard” is sprouting angry weeds fed by the scandal involving intelligence leaker Edward Snowden.

Russia faced stark warnings from US yesterday against granting asylum to Snowden after he broke three weeks of silence to tell activists he wanted sanctuary in the country.

Snowden on Friday dramatically summoned activists to the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport where he has been marooned without a valid passport for the last three weeks after arriving on a flight from Hong Kong.

The United States wants the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor extradited back home to face justice over his leaking of sensational details about US surveillance activities, a demand Moscow has so far rejected.

In an indication that already tense US-Russia ties could strain further over the affair, the White House warned Russia not to grant Snowden a “propaganda platform” as top allies of President Vladimir Putin argued he should be given sanctuary.

Snowden, 30, making his first publicized appearance since arriving in Moscow, told the activists he wanted to claim asylum in Russia until he could safely travel to win permanent sanctuary in Latin America. “I ask for your assistance in requesting guarantees of safe passage... in securing my travel to Latin America, as well as requesting asylum in Russia until such time as... my legal travel is permitted,” Snowden said.

He said that the asylum request was being made Friday evening.

The head of Russia’s Federal Migration Service (FMS) Konstantin Romodanovsky said yesterday that Moscow had yet to receive the application which, if it arrived, would be examined “according to normal legal procedures.”

Prominent Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, who attended the meeting and promised to help Snowden, told Russian television that the asylum request procedure could take up to three weeks.

But hinting that Snowden’s new application may be viewed positively, the speaker of Russia’s lower house of Parliament Sergei Naryshkin and the upper house speaker Valentina Matviyenko both swiftly said his request should be accepted.

Naryshkin, a powerful ally of Putin who used to head the Kremlin administration, said that Snowden was a “defender of human rights” who risked facing the death penalty if he was sent back to the United States.