(The Guardian / REUTERS)
Putin: Snowden still at Moscow airport, won’t be extradited
Fugitive wanted for leaking secret documents remains beyond reach of Russian authorities, official says.
Putin said Snowden arrived in Moscow unexpectedly and had committed no crime in Russia. He has not crossed into a part of the airport that requires him to show his passport to Russian authorities. Because Russia does not have an extradition agreement with the United States, Putin said, Snowden will not be extradited as the United States has requested.
Secretary of State John Kerry said Russia
doesn't "have to enforce the law" but should allow fugitive Edward
Snowden "to be subject to the laws of our land."
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A short time earlier, Secretary of State John F. Kerry had issued a terse appeal to Russia’s sense of diplomatic and bilateral norms in hopes of getting them to hand over the 30-year-old former government contractor, who is charged with revealing classified information about secret U.S. surveillance programs.
“There are standards of behavior between sovereign nations,” said Kerry, who is traveling in Saudi Arabia. “There is common law. There is respect for rule of law.
“And we would simply call on our friends in Russia to respect the fact that a partner nation, a co-member of the Permanent Five of the United Nations, has made a normal request under legal assistance, for law to be upheld.”
The dueling comments only added to the international tension surrounding the saga of Snowden, who left Hong Kong for Moscow on Sunday despite a U.S. extradition request. He is seeking asylum in Ecuador .
China and Hong Kong on Tuesday also rejected U.S. criticism of their roles in the legal drama, saying their governments also acted in compliance with the law in not transferring Snowden to U.S. custody. On Monday, Kerry and other top U.S. officials said there would be serious consequences for Russia, China and any other countries that failed to work with the United States to facilitate Snowden’s surrender.
“The accusations against the Chinese government are groundless,” said Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Hua Chunying. “We hope the United States can work with China [to] . . . strengthen dialogue and cooperation . . . and continuously promote new development of U.S.-China relations.”
Rimsky Yuen, Hong Kong’s justice secretary, reiterated previous claims by his government that it had sought more information from the United States and did not receive that information in time to process an extradition request.
“I can tell you in no uncertain terms that we have not been deliberately delaying the progress, Yuen said. “Any suggestion that we have been deliberately letting Mr Snowden go away or to do any other things to obstruct the normal operation is totally untrue.”
Putin told reporters at a news conference in Finland, saying that he hoped Snowden would leave the Moscow airport as quickly as possible and that his stopover there would not affect his country’s dealings with the United States. “The faster he chooses his ultimate destination, the better for us and for him,” Putin said, in remarks relayed by the Interfax news agency.
Kerry offered an olive branch of sorts, while still making clear that the United States expects Russia to take action. “We are not looking for a confrontation. We are not ordering anything. We are simply requesting,” he said.
International airports in Russia include “transit zones” that are set aside so that passengers with connecting flights to other countries can avoid the time-consuming and expensive process of obtaining a Russian visa. A visa for a U.S. citizen costs from $140 to $450.
The area is defined as outside Russia’s borders, so that the traveler does not cross through passport control, where U.S. citizens and others requiring visas would have to present them.
Russian authorities are in full control of the area — armed police meet arriving passengers at the door to the airplane — and they have the power to escort a traveler through passport control and arrest him if they choose.
Typically, airlines check a passenger’s visa status before allowing him to board a flight to Russia. A passenger intending to stay in the transit zone usually would have to show evidence of onward travel. Passengers are allowed to stay for up to 24 hours in the transit zone without a visa, but a consular officer is on duty several hours a day in case extensions are needed.
“They don’t have to enforce the law,” Kerry said. “But they certainly can allow him to be subject to the laws of our land and our constitution, which he is a citizen of. And that’s what we call on them to do. . . . We’re simply requesting, under a very normal procedure, for the transfer of somebody.”
Although Snowden was widely rumored to have traveled to Moscow in hopes of catching a flight to Havana — and then flying from Cuba to Ecuador — airline officials said he was not on Monday’s Moscow-Havana flight. The Russian news agency Ria Novosti, citing unnamed airline officials, said he was not on Tuesday’s flight either.
DeYoung reported from Saudi Arabia. Jia Lynn Yang in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
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