MOSCOW: Fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, who has been holed up in a Moscow Airport for more than two weeks, has agreed to an offer of asylum from Venezuela, a top Russian lawmaker said on Twitter yesterday before removing the post.

“As was expected, Snowden agreed to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s offer of political asylum,” tweeted Alexei Pushkov, head of the Russian lower house of Parliament’s international affairs committee.

“Apparently this option looked like the most reliable one to Snowden.” The announcement remained on his Twitter feed for around half an hour before it was removed.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman declined to comment, saying all questions should be directed to Pushkov.

“Turn to them for all the questions,” Dmitry Peskov said tersely.

After removing his original post, Pushkov said in a separate message that he had learned of the most recent development around Snowden from a news report on Russian state television. He later rephrased his original message, saying Snowden had agreed to asylum in Venezula.

“Venezuela finally received an answer from the CIA former agent,” a news report on the channel’s website said earlier yesterday.

“The President of the Latin American country, Nicolas Maduro, received an official political asylum request from Edward Snowden,” said the channel. On Monday, Maduro called on Snowden to decide if he wanted to fly to Caracas. “We have received the asylum request letter,” Maduro told reporters in Caracas after he offered the 30-year-old former National Security Agency contractor asylum along with the leaders of Bolivia and Nicaragua.

“He will have to decide when he flies, if he finally wants to fly here,” Maduro said. He called the offers from the three Latin American nations “collective humanitarian political asylum.” It remains unclear how the world’s most famous refugee would be able to leave the transit zone of Sheremetyevo Airport, where he has been marooned without valid documents since he arrived from Hong Kong on June 23.