| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia | |
| Snowden stuck in Moscow airport, 'can't buy ticket with invalid passport' | |
| 2013-06-26 | |
Edward Snowden is not booked to fly out of Moscow over the next three days, and with no valid passport, the NSA whistleblower might be stuck in airport limbo indefinitely.
Washington, which wants Snowden for leaking details of the National Security Agency's (NSA) dragnet telephone and internet surveillance programs, charges that there is a clear legal basis for Moscow to hand him over. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who confirmed that Snowden had arrived in Moscow as a transit passenger despite speculation to the contrary, rebuffed US demands on Tuesday. "We can only extradite any foreign citizens to such countries with which we have signed the appropriate international agreements on criminal extradition," Putin said, adding that as Snowden had committed no crime on Russian soil, he is free to travel at will. "Snowden is a free person. The sooner he chooses his final destination, the better it is for him and Russia," Putin continued. | |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #17 Putin's having a brief moment if fun now, but he's in a weak position overall and getting weaker. He's scared of his own shadow, his government's a shambles, and his country's economy is about to collapse because of shale oil and gas. He's stolen over $40 billion, but that jig, too, is up: Gazprom is facing ruin. Putin is a less comical version of Berlusconi. But Mistah B, he goin' to da big house now, and Mistah P' days are numbered, too. Putin's bravado can't disguise the fact that his era's coming to an end. |
| Posted by: Lex 2013-06-26 21:53 |
| #16 Putin is certainly having fun here. He is humiliating Obama as well as Ed Snowden. |
| Posted by: lord garth 2013-06-26 21:20 |
| #15 No, EC, I don't seriously believe he's in the transit area. No one has reported even seeing him arrive at Sheremetyevo. He's been in Russian hands since he left HK. They could have slipped him out of HK on one of Putin's/the Russian bandit-oligarchs' private jets and flown him to Belarus or Novgorod or somesuch. Oh, and check this out: in 2009, Snowden told his online mates that "leakers should be shot." http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/27/world/under-snowdens-screen-name-a-declaration-in-09-that-leakers-should-be-shot.html?hp The kid is a nutjob. He's going to spill everything to his FSB interrogators, and then some. |
| Posted by: Lex 2013-06-26 20:01 |
| #14 This cant be that difficult. Three guys from the Embassy go over there with four tickets and new some paperwork for the guy. Get to him, put a mickey in his Guava Juice, and carry him onto the next flight to New York. The Russians admit he is there. If they won't produce him for the embassy people, then they are admitting to holding him. The Russians don't want to admit that too. This is an airport not an embassy. |
| Posted by: rammer 2013-06-26 18:42 |
| #13 Snowden is just waiting for his luggage down at baggage claim. Also would anyone really want to give this guy a ride with the possibility of being Droned. |
| Posted by: airandee 2013-06-26 16:31 |
| #12 The Lizard People may have an annex at SVO, the climate is similar to Denver. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2013-06-26 16:20 |
| #11 Some one send him a page in the American Terminal. |
| Posted by: Newc 2013-06-26 16:15 |
| #10 Perhaps the President could direct that the US embassy in Moscow send one of their employees to Sheremetyevo Airport to check... |
| Posted by: Pappy 2013-06-26 15:31 |
| #9 You don't seriously believe that he's in the transit area. |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2013-06-26 15:09 |
| #8 ..or Cuban or Venezuelan. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2013-06-26 13:16 |
| #7 The Ecuadorian embassy could issue him a passport. |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2013-06-26 13:02 |
| #6 The Russians must be having problems decrypting Eddie's laptops. Al |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2013-06-26 12:34 |
| #5 It sounds like Edward did not think his cunning plan through very thoroughly. I get this image of the barking dog that finally catches the big garbage truck - "Yeah big guy, whatcha' gonna' do now?" Perhaps he can pull down "Enemy of the State" as a Torr file, for some "lessons learned" - or give a listen to Jim Croce's "You Don't Mess Around with Jim" - and I'm thinking of the part about "You don't pull on Superman's cape." Unfortunately for Mr. Snowden, once you squeeze it out, you generally can't put the toothpaste back into the tube. |
| Posted by: Lone Ranger 2013-06-26 12:23 |
| #4 JohnQC - I believe that was a movie "The Terminal" about a man stuck in some airport terminal for over a year or something. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2013-06-26 11:49 |
| #3 Like Assange, he is in limbo or a kind of purgatory. There was a story awhile back about a guy who lived for quite some time in one of our major airports--he wasn't even a fugitive. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2013-06-26 11:42 |
| #2 but at least he has access to that deeelicious Russian Airport Food™ |
| Posted by: Frank G 2013-06-26 10:48 |
| #1 President Putin has an evil sense of humor. |
| Posted by: Perfesser 2013-06-26 10:41 |