Kremlin 'helped Snowden from start' [View all]
Source: The Times (UK) via The Australian
Ben Hoyle
From: The Times
August 27, 2013 10:33AM
... According to the story in Kommersant, a pro-Kremlin broadsheet, Mr Snowden contacted Russian officials in June, shortly after he fled the US.
The newspaper claimed that the former National Security Agency contractor spent several days in the Russian consulate in Hong Kong, celebrating his 30th birthday there, before flying to Moscow on June 23. He then spent more than a month in Sheremetyevo airport before Russia granted him a year's asylum.
A Western source confirmed the information to the newspaper, adding that the West thought it was possible that the Russian authorities had invited Snowden to go to Russia. It is likely that the "Russians themselves invited Snowden, passing the invitation on to him via the Chinese who were happy to get rid of him", a Western source was quoted as saying.
President Putin has previously said that Mr Snowden came to Russia uninvited. The Kommersant story does not directly contradict that claim ...
Read more: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/kremlin-helped-snowden-from-start/story-fnb64oi6-1226704837725
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