Former U.S. National Security Agency analyst Edward Snowden told Russian human rights activists and government officials on Friday that he would apply for asylum in Russia while determining a way to obtain safe passage to South America, the activists and officials said.

Meeting in a room at Sheremetyevo Airport, where Snowden has been apparently stuck for three weeks after the United States revoked his passport, the world-famous fugitive said receiving political asylum in Russia would be the only way to guarantee his safety because of his inability to travel, the activists and officials told journalists after the meeting.

On June 30, Snowden announced that he had asked Russia for asylum only to revoke his request after President Vladimir Putin said the next day that the former spy agency employee could stay only if he stopped "inflicting damage on our American partners."

The Kremlin has publicly indicated a desire to be rid of Snowden, whose presence in Russia has hurt already strained U.S.-Russia ties, but signals Friday pointed to a possible change in attitude.

State Duma speaker and strong Putin ally Sergei Naryshkin told Rossia 24 television that he thought Russia should grant Snowden asylum, assuming he fulfills the condition set by Putin. And Lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, a member of the Public Chamber who has represented outspokenly pro-Putin film director Nikita Mikhalov and United Russia lawmaker Iosif Kobzon, said he had agreed with Snowden to help him in preparing his asylum request, according to Interfax.

According to those present at Friday's meeting, Snowden asked for help in convincing Putin to let him stay in Russia, saying he did not plan any actions aimed at harming the U.S. and therefore met Putin's condition.

"I want the U.S. to succeed," Snowden said, according to Human Rights Watch deputy Russia director Tanya Lokshina, as reported in a tweet by New York Times reporter Ellen Barry.

Snowden also asked for assistance in convincing international organizations to petition the U.S. and European Union to allow him to travel, since such organizations require applicants to come to them, and he is stuck in the airport, Lokshina said, according to tweets by Barry. He also thanked the countries that have offered him asylum already, which include Venezuela and Bolivia, and said his goal was to travel to South America eventually.

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Interfax that he had no confirmation of Snowden's latest asylum request to Russia but that the condition for receiving it had not changed.

It was unclear from Snowden's statements regarding his attitude toward the U.S. whether he intended to stop leaking secret U.S. documents, for which the United States wants to charge him with espionage, or whether believes he is actually helping the U.S. by leaking the information.

United Russia parliamentarian Alexei Pushkov, who heads the State Duma's International Affairs Committee, said on Twitter that Russia had acted correctly in not extraditing Snowden.

“Russia did the right thing is not giving up Snowden. There are things more important than a momentary gain. Pragmatism in foreign policy is not the same as cynicism,” Pushkov wrote.

Snowden did not appear before the hundreds of journalists who gathered at Sheremetyevo in anticipation of the meeting and gave few details on his life at the airport to the meeting's participants, saying just that he felt fine and safe, according to Lokshina.

The Moscow Times 

Bolivia's leader Evo Morales has accused the United States of breaking international law. South American leaders joined him in condemning the diversion of Morales' jet on the suspicion that Edward Snowden was on board.

The presidents of Argentina, Ecuador, Suriname, Venezuela and Uruguay called the treatment of Morales by European leaders "an offense" to all South American nations, according to a joint statement released early Friday. The leaders had convened in the central Bolivian city of Chochabamba overnight following Morales' return from Europe.
Earlier in the week, European officials had rerouted the Bolivian president's return flight from Moscow, forcing him to land in Vienna where he remained grounded for over 13 hours. They reportedly believed that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden had been on board the airplane. Bolivian President Morales alleged that France, Italy, Portugal and Spain all revoked flight clearance for his plane based on the "false rumor."
President Morales express outrage at the move, threatening to retaliate against the United States for breaking international law.
"United we will defeat American imperialism. We met with the leaders of my party and they asked us for several measures," he said.
"We don't need a US embassy in Bolivia," Morales added. "My hand would not shake to close the US embassy. We have dignity, sovereignty. Without the United States, we are better politically, democratically."
Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Peru also condemned the diversion of Morales' plane, but did not attend the meeting.
Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden is currently believed to be residing in the Moscow airport, where he awaits approval for asylum from a number of Western nations. The US wants Snowden on charges of espionage for leaking details of a wide-reaching surveillance program, known as Prism.
South America outraged
Comments from the leaders in attendance also emerged separately from the group's official statement, expressing anger over the lingering influence of Europe and over the US' recurrent meddling in their politics.
"The leaders and authorities in Europe have to take a lesson in history and understand that we're not 500 years behind. This Latin America of the 21st century is independent, dignified and sovereign," said Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa.
"Imagine if this happened to a European head of state, if this had happened to the president of the United States. It probably would have been a casus belli, a case for war," Correa said. "They think they can attack, crush, destroy international law."
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accused the CIA of strong-arming EU officials into complying with its wishes.
"A minister of one of those European governments told me personally that it was the CIA who gave the order to [ground the plane]," Maduro said late Thursday. "The CIA is more powerful that governments."
France has already issued an apology, which Bolivian President Morales immediately rejected. However, the Argentine president renewed calls for apologizes from the other European nations to ease tensions.
The diplomatic row also sparked public ire in the Bolivia ahead of the meeting. In La Paz, small demonstrations too place outside the US and French embassies. In the city of Santa Cruz, government sympathies spray painted graffiti on the US embassy.
kms/rg (AP, AFP)

Edward Snowden not on Bolivian president's diverted plane 

A jet carrying the Bolivian president is on its way home after being forced to land at Vienna airport because of the refusal of some European countries to let it pass through their airspace. Eva Morales was returning from a visit to Moscow. He called it "an excuse to scare, intimidate and punish me". 

The US government has admitted that it had been in contact with other nations about potential flights involving Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower. The State Department would not comment on whether it had made any specific respresentations over Morales's flight.

Bolivian and Austrian authorities insisted Snowden was not on the plane. The extent to which the Austrian police officers searched the jet was unclear.

An Austrian official told AP that Morales's aircraft asked controllers at Vienna airport to land because there was "no clear indication" that the plane had enough fuel to continue on its journey. 

Bolivia's UN ambassador has said that the country will file a formal complaint with the United Nations over the "kidnapping" of Morales. A number of South American leaders voiced outrage at the incident, including the Argentinian president Cristina Kirchner and Rafael Correa, the president of Ecuador.

Ecuador's foreign minister Ricardo Patino says Ecuador has found a hidden microphone inside its London embassy, where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is living, and it would disclose who controls the device. Patino described it as "another instance of a loss of ethics at the international level in relations between governments"

The Complete Coverage

Flight of the plane in real time

Source: The Guardian 

WASHINGTON (AP) — National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, believed to be in legal limbo in the Moscow airport, is expanding his requests for asylum to another 19 countries, including China, according to WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group that has adopted Snowden and his cause, on Monday night posted a statement said to be from Snowden that slammed President Barack Obama for "using citizenship as a weapon."
"Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person," Snowden says in the statement. "Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum.
"Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me."
WikiLeaks legal adviser Sarah Harrison delivered the requests for asylum to an official at the Russian consulate at the Moscow airport on Sunday, according to the website. WikiLeaks says some of the requests have already been delivered to the appropriate embassies.
The WikiLeaks statement said requests were made to China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, India and several European countries. Snowden had planned earlier to seek asylum in Ecuador and has requested asylum in Russia.
The asylum requests reported by WikiLeaks and the Snowden statement could not be independently authenticated.
Snowden, who has been on the run since releasing sensitive NSA documents, is believed to have been in Moscow airport's transit zone since his arrival from Hong Kong on June 23. The U.S. has annulled his passport, and Ecuador, where he had hoped to get asylum, has been giving mixed signals about offering him shelter.
After Snowden applied for political asylum to remain in Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters in Moscow that Snowden would have to stop leaking U.S. secrets if he wanted asylum there — and he added that Snowden seemed unwilling to stop publishing leaks of classified material.
At the same time, Putin said he had no plans to turn over Snowden to the United States.
The expanded requests for asylum come as the Obama administration contends with European allies angry about the release of documents that alleged U.S. eavesdropping on European Union diplomats.
Obama, in an African news conference with Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, said the U.S. would provide allies with information about new reports that the NSA had bugged EU offices in Washington, New York and Brussels. But he also suggested such activity by governments would hardly be unusual.
"We should stipulate that every intelligence service —not just ours, but every European intelligence service, every Asian intelligence service, wherever there's an intelligence service — here's one thing that they're going to be doing: They're going to be trying to understand the world better, and what's going on in world capitals around the world," he said. "If that weren't the case, then there'd be no use for an intelligence service."
The latest issue concerns allegations, published in the German newsweekly Der Spiegel, of U.S. spying on European officials. French President Francois Hollande demanded Monday that the U.S. immediately stop any such eavesdropping and suggested the widening controversy could jeopardize next week's opening of trans-Atlantic trade talks between the United States and Europe.
"We cannot accept this kind of behavior from partners and allies," Hollande said on French television.
German government spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters in Berlin, "Eavesdropping on friends is unacceptable." He declared, "We're not in the Cold War anymore."
Even before the latest disclosures, talks at the upcoming free-trade sessions were expected to be fragile, with disagreements surfacing over which items should be covered in or excluded from an agreement. The United States has said there should be no exceptions. But France has called for exempting certain cultural products, and other Europeans do not appear eager to give up longtime agricultural subsidies.
Obama said the Europeans "are some of the closest allies that we have in the world." But he added: "I guarantee you that in European capitals, there are people who are interested in, if not what I had for breakfast, at least what my talking points might be should I end up meeting with their leaders. That's how intelligence services operate."
Nonetheless, Obama said he'd told his advisers to "evaluate everything that's being claimed" and promised to share the results with allies.
Meanwhile, the Interfax news agency said a Russian consular official has confirmed that Snowden had asked for asylum in Russia.
Interfax cited Kim Shevchenko, the duty officer at the Russian Foreign Ministry's consular office in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, as saying that Snowden's representative, Harrison, handed over his request Sunday.
"If he wants to go somewhere and there are those who would take him, he is welcome to do so," Putin said. "If he wants to stay here, there is one condition: He must stop his activities aimed at inflicting damage on our American partners, no matter how strange it may sound coming from my lips."
Obama said "there have been high-level discussions with the Russians" about Snowden's situation.
"We don't have an extradition treaty with Russia. On the other hand, you know, Mr. Snowden, we understand, has traveled there without a valid passport, without legal papers. And you know we are hopeful that the Russian government makes decisions based on the normal procedures regarding international travel and the normal procedures regarding international travel and the normal interactions that law enforcement has. So I can confirm that."
Putin didn't mention any Snowden effort to seek asylum in Russia, and spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to say what the Russian response might be. Putin insisted that Snowden wasn't a Russian agent and that Russian security agencies hadn't contacted him.
Three U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to publicly discuss the Snowden case, said Washington's efforts were focused primarily on persuading Russia to deport Snowden either directly to the United States or to a third country, possibly in eastern Europe, that would then hand him over to U.S. authorities.
In a sign of the distrust generated by the Der Spiegel report, the German government said it had launched a review of its secure government communications network and the EU's executive, the European Commission, ordered "a comprehensive ad hoc security sweep."
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday he didn't know the details of the allegations, but he still played them down, maintaining that many nations undertake various activities to protect their national interests. Kerry failed to quell the outrage from allies, including France, Germany and Italy.
A spokesman for Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, said, "The European Union has demanded and expects full and urgent clarification by the U.S. regarding the allegations."
According to Der Spiegel's report, which it said was partly based on information leaked by Snowden, NSA planted bugs in the EU's diplomatic offices in Washington and infiltrated the building's computer network. Similar measures were taken at the EU's mission to the United Nations in New York, the magazine said.
It also reported that the NSA used secure facilities at NATO headquarters in Brussels to dial into telephone maintenance systems that would have allowed it to intercept senior officials' calls and Internet traffic at a key EU office nearby.
As for Snowden, White House national security spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said the White House won't comment on specific asylum requests but reiterated its message to all countries that he "needs to be expelled back to the U.S. based on the fact that he doesn't have travel documents and the charges pending against him."
Regarding possible effects on U.S. interactions with Russia, she said it remains the case "that we don't want this issue to negatively impact the bilateral relationship."
___
Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, Sarah Di Lorenzo in Paris, Frank Jordans and Geir Moulson in Berlin, Elena Becatoros in Athens, Raf Casert in Brussels, Deb Riechmann in Brunei, Nicole Winfield in Rome, Julie Pace in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

"I witnessed the abuse regularly. However I was told it was not a problem. "

The whistleblower Edward Snowden is fleeing from America and leaving a trail of revelations. He is the victim of a global hunt, that remembers at  a thriller of the Cold War mixed with the technology of the 21st Century.

By Michael Bohm

Is Edward Snowden a traitor or hero? While public opinion in the U.S. clearly favors traitor, Russian politicians and the Kremlin-friendly media have turned him into a "hero of democracy" and a "U.S. dissident."

Alexei Pushkov, the State Duma's International Affairs Committee head, perhaps best represented the prevailing government — and, by default, popular Russian — view when he recently wrote on Twitter: "By listening in on phone calls and tracking Internet activity, U.S. intelligence agencies have violated the laws of their own country. In this sense, Snowden, like [WikiLeaks founder Julian] Assange, is a human rights activist. … They are new dissidents."

If Snowden receives asylum in Russia, he will face a serious moral dilemma: His will be living in a country with a far worse record than the U.S. on government abuse and transparency. 

But Pushkov is wrong on several counts. First, the NSA did not indiscriminately eavesdrop on the private phone calls of Americans without a court order. It tracked "metadata" by sorting general information about calling patterns, not the content of the calls.

Second, the NSA program is fully legal and has been upheld by several U.S. court rulings, which likened it to what the U.S. Postal Service does when it reads addresses that are written on envelopes. The courts ruled that Americans willingly give up this information to third parties to complete their calls and send their letters. At the same time, however, the contents within the envelope, like the content of phone calls, are constitutionally protected against search and seizure without a court warrant.

Although the NSA surveillance program was secret, the U.S. legislative branch (the House and Senate intelligence committees) approved the program, and the judicial branch (the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court) provided constant oversight during the seven years of its existence. Since Snowden did not reveal anything illegal on the NSA's part, he would not be protected under U.S. whistleblower-protection laws.

Nonetheless, Pushkov wrote on Twitter that he supports the idea of political asylum for Snowden because he is being "persecuted" by the U.S. government "on political grounds."

This is the same line Pushkov and Kremlin-friendly analysts have used to defend another "U.S. dissident" — Private Bradley Manning, who released 700,000 classified documents to WikiLeaks, the overwhelming majority of which were also not protected under U.S. whistleblower laws.

Instead of engaging in Assange-like vigilantism by leaking classified information indiscriminately, Snowden should have appealed to U.S. lawmakers, the Freedom of Information Act or the inspector general to declassify the NSA program to achieve his self-proclaimed goal of sparking a public discussion and debate over the program. Manning should have leaked only those documents that revealed true government abuse, certainly not those that revealed the identity of U.S. informants or classified diplomatic cables that had no public service value whatsoever.

In Snowden's case, the leaks looked more like the works of a narcissistic Herostratus. According to statements he made to the South China Morning Post newspaper and published Monday, he joined Booz Allen Hamilton, an NSA contractor, with the express intent of getting a security clearance and leaking classified NSA documents. Meanwhile, Manning's motive was to take revenge on the U.S. for the failures and traumas he incurred in the army as a result of a gender-identity disorder. These are hardly the profiles of a true whistleblower.

By claiming that Snowden and Manning are genuine whistleblowers who have become victims of U.S. government persecution, Pushkov and other Russian opinion makers have flipped the two scandals completely on their heads. This brings back echoes of the "Free Angela Davis!" slogan, a massive Soviet propaganda campaign in the late 1960s and early 1970s to defend U.S. Communist Party leader Angela Davis. Davis faced charges in the U.S. of being an accomplice in a murder case, but the Kremlin claimed she was persecuted exclusively for her political beliefs.

Interestingly, Russia's own top whistleblower — Alexei Navalny — is portrayed by the same pro-Kremlin analysts and media outlets as the subversive leader of a fifth column who is financed by the U.S. State Department to carry out an Orange-style revolution in Russia. Another prominent Russian whistleblower, Sergei Magnitsky, died in 2009 after being denied medical care in pretrial detention and after he exposed a $230 million corruption scheme among officials at the Interior Ministry and tax inspectorate.

If there is anything Orwellian about the Snowden scandal, it is not that the U.S. has become a "Big Brother," listening in on Americans' private conversations. It is the way Russia has lionized two U.S. criminals, while criminalizing Russia's true whistleblowers and opposition leaders. Navalny is being tried on embezzlement charges, while Magnitsky is being tried -- posthumously -- on tax evasion charges.

During a recent meeting with journalists from RT state television, President Vladimir Putin commented on the NSA surveillance program, saying disingenuously that government eavesdropping on its citizens is "acceptable if it is done within the limits of the law."

If Putin was referring to Russian law, he should answer the following questions: Who makes, interprets and enforces Russia's laws? Independent bodies with checks and balances, or Kremlin-loyal organs? How many times do Russian courts approve the warrants after the surveillance has already occurred, and how many times does the FSB listen in on private conversations without a warrant?

Take, for example, the eavesdropping on opposition leader Boris Nemtsov's phone conversations in December in which he used abusive language to criticize several colleagues in the opposition movement. Nemtsov's phone conversations were published by the Kremlin-friendly Life News website three days before a planned protest march in an attempt to split the opposition leadership. Andrei Soldatov and other independent intelligence analysts believe that only Russian intelligence agencies have the equipment to eavesdrop on Nemtsov and other opposition leaders.

This is clearly a violation of Russian law because Nemtsov's conversations were exclusively private. They did not belong to the category of "the public has a right to know" because they did not expose corruption, abuse of power or any other crime.

Thus, while the NSA surveillance program was aimed at finding terrorists in a haystack, the FSB, it would seem, is more interested in smearing opposition leaders. But, then again, as United Russian leader Irina Yarovaya infamously said recently, the country's opposition leaders "do not differ at all from terrorists."

Forty years ago in the U.S., spying on the opposition led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon and the prosecution of 43 top officials and executors of the crime. In Russia, those who spy on the opposition are, most likely, first in line to receive promotions and big bonuses.

Imagine if there was a "Russian Snowden" who worked in the FSB, leaked classified information to a British newspaper about the agency's massive internal surveillance programs and fled the country. It is doubtful that Pushkov and others would hail him as a political dissident or a brave symbol of democracy, human rights and government transparency.

The irony is that if Snowden ever does receive asylum in Russia, he will be living in a country that has a far worse record than the U.S. in terms of government abuse and transparency. And if Snowden is true to his stated values and wants to continue his mission in Russia as a libertarian and privacy rights activist, he will definitely have his work cut out for him.

Before Russian politicians and the media get too worked up over the U.S. persecution of "dissidents" like Snowden and Manning, they should spend a little more attention to their own dissidents — whistleblowers, human rights activists and members of the opposition who are being harassed, intimidated and jailed by the state. Even Angela Davis would agree with that.

The Moscow Times 

A former U.S. spy agency contractor sought by Washington on espionage charges appeared on Wednesday still to be in hiding at Sheremetyevo Airport, and Russia's national airline said he was not booked on any of its flights over the next three days.
Edward Snowden fled to Hong Kong after leaking details of secret U.S. government surveillance programs, then flew on to Moscow on Sunday, evading a U.S. extradition request. President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that he was in the transit area of the airport and that Russia had no intention of handing him to Washington.
"They are not flying today and not over the next three days," an Aeroflot representative at the transfer desk at Sheremetyevo said when asked whether Snowden and his legal adviser, Sarah Harrison, were due to fly out on Wednesday.
"They are not in the system."
Snowden has not been seen in public, but Russian officials say he is at the airport, awaiting a response to an appeal for asylum in Ecuador. The logical route to be taken — and one for which he at one point had a reservation — would be an Aeroflot flight via Havana.
The choice of alternative public flights, while the U.S. presses other countries not to take him in or to arrest him on arrival, would be limited.
WikiLeaks said Wednesday that former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden was "safe and well," a brief statement that gave no indication of how the information was obtained and did little to clear up the mystery concerning his whereabouts.
The group, which says it is helping Snowden to seek asylum, has declined to reveal details about Snowden's plans, citing security concerns.
Putin denied Snowden was being interviewed by Russian intelligence and said any U.S. accusations that Moscow was aiding him were "ravings and rubbish."
That prompted a new extradition demand by Washington, which said there was a "clear legal basis" to do so.
The row threatens to further fray ties between the United States and Russia, which have argued over human rights and Putin's treatment of opponents in a year-old third term and have squared off over the Syrian conflict in the UN Security Council.
Relations between the U.S. and Ecuador are also under threat as the South American nation considers Snowden's request for asylum, a process that the Ecuadorean foreign minister said Wednesday could take months to complete.
Speaking during a visit to Malaysia's main city, Kuala Lumpur, Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino compared Snowden's case to that of Julian Assange, the founder of anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, who has been given asylum in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.
"It took us two months to make a decision in the case of Assange, so do not expect us to make a decision sooner this time," Patino told reporters.
Asked if Ecuador would provide protection to Snowden while considering his request for asylum, Patino said through a translator that if Snowden "goes to the embassy, then we will make a decision."
Patino refused to say what criteria Ecuador would use to decide, but added that his government would "consider all these risks," including concerns that helping Snowden would hurt trade with the U.S. and damage his country's economy.
In another development in the Snowden story, Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon said Wednesday that he had decided not to represent the leaker. A statement from his law firm provided no further explanation.
Garzon, who has fought on WikiLeaks' behalf, became famous for indicting former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998 and trying to put him on trial for crimes against humanity. He was suspended from office in Spain for overstepping his powers by starting an investigation into killings committed on behalf of former Spanish dictator Gen. Francisco Franco.
Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.

Read more: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/snowden-at-moscow-airport-no-aeroflot-flight-booked-for-days/482366.html#ixzz2XQj18up1
The Moscow Times

WASHINGTON (AP) — For President Barack Obama, National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden's globe-trotting evasion of U.S. authorities has dealt a startling setback to efforts to strengthen ties with China and raised the prospect of worsening tensions with Russia.

Indeed, Russia's foreign minister on Tuesday called U.S. demands for Snowden's extradition "ungrounded and unacceptable."

Relations with both China and Russia have been at the forefront of Obama's foreign policy agenda this month, underscoring the intertwined interests among these uneasy partners. Obama met just last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit in Northern Ireland and held an unusual two-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in California earlier this month.

Obama has made no known phone calls to Xi since Snowden surfaced in Hong Kong earlier this month, nor has he talked to Putin since Snowden arrived in Russia.

Former Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., said it wasn't clear that Obama's "charm offensive" with Xi and Putin would matter much on this issue. The U.S. has "very little leverage," she said, given the broad array of issues on which the Obama administration needs Chinese and Russian cooperation.

"This isn't happening in a vacuum, and obviously China and Russia know that," said Harman, who now runs the Woodrow Wilson International Center.

Both the U.S. and China had hailed the Obama-Xi summit as a fresh start to a complex relationship, with the leaders building personal bonds during an hour-long walk through the grounds of the Sunnylands estate. But any easing of tensions appeared to vanish Monday following China's apparent flouting of U.S. demands that Snowden be returned from semi-autonomous Hong Kong to face espionage charges.

White House spokesman Jay Carney, in unusually harsh language, said China had "unquestionably" damaged its relationship with Washington.

"The Chinese have emphasized the importance of building mutual trust," Carney said. "We think that they have dealt that effort a serious setback. If we cannot count on them to honor their legal extradition obligations, then there is a problem."

A similar problem may be looming with Russia, where Snowden arrived Sunday. He had been expected to leave Moscow for a third country, but the White House said Monday it believed the former government contractor was still in Russia.

While the U.S. does not have an extradition treaty with Russia, the White House publicly prodded the Kremlin to send Snowden back to the U.S., while officials privately negotiated with their Russian counterparts.

"We are expecting the Russians to examine the options available to them to expel Mr. Snowden for his return to the United States," Carney said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday bluntly rejected the U.S. request, saying Snowden hasn't crossed the Russian border. He angrily lashed out at the U.S. for warnings of negative consequences if Moscow fails to comply.

"We consider the attempts to accuse Russia of violation of U.S. laws and even some sort of conspiracy, which on top of all that are accompanied by threats, as absolutely ungrounded and unacceptable," Lavrov said.

During a stop in Saudi Arabia, Secretary of State John Kerry responded by saying the United States is not looking for a confrontation with Russia.

Speaking at a news conference in Jiddah, Kerry said that while it's true the United States does not have an extradition treaty with Russia, Moscow should comply with common law practices between countries concerning fugitives. "I would simply appeal for calm and reasonableness," Kerry said. "We would hope that Russia would not side with someone who is 'a fugitive' from justice.' "

The U.S. has deep economic ties with China and needs the Asian power's help in persuading North Korea to end its nuclear provocations. The Obama administration also needs Russia's cooperation in ending the bloodshed in Syria and reducing nuclear stockpiles held by the former Cold War foes.

Members of Congress so far have focused their anger on China and Russia, not on Obama's inability to get either country to abide by U.S. demands. However, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said in an interview with CNN on Monday that he was starting to wonder why the president hasn't been "more forceful in dealing with foreign leaders."

Sen. John McCain, who lost to Obama in the 2008 presidential election, echoed that concern on Tuesday, telling CNN that "we've got to start dealing with Vladimir Putin for what he is."

The Arizona Republican called Putin "an old KGB colonel apparatchik" who disdains democracy and said that Putin "continues to stick his thumb in our eye."

"When you show the world you're leading from behind, these are the consequences," McCain said.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton echoed the White House's frustration with China. "That kind of action is not only detrimental to the U.S.-China relationship but it sets a bad precedent that could unravel the intricate international agreements about how countries respect the laws — and particularly the extradition treaties," the possible 2016 presidential contender told an audience in Los Angeles.

Snowden fled to Hong Kong after seizing highly classified documents disclosing U.S. surveillance programs that collect vast amounts of U.S. phone and Internet records. He shared the information with The Guardian and Washington Post newspapers. He also told the South China Morning Post that "the NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese cellphone companies to steal all of your SMS data." SMS, or short messaging service, generally means text messaging.

Snowden still has perhaps more than 200 sensitive documents, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said over the weekend.

Hong Kong, a former British colony with a degree of autonomy from mainland China, has an extradition treaty with the U.S. Officials in Hong Kong said a formal U.S. extradition request did not fully comply with its laws, a claim the Justice Department disputes.

The White House made clear it believes the final decision to let Snowden leave for Russia was made by Chinese officials in Beijing.

Russia's ultimate response to U.S. pressure remains unclear. Putin could still agree to return Snowden to the U.S. But he may also let him stay in Russia or head elsewhere, perhaps to Ecuador or Venezuela — both options certain to earn the ire of the White House.

Fiona Hill, a Russia expert at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, said she expected Putin to take advantage of a "golden opportunity" to publicly defy the White House.

"This is one of those opportunities to score points against the United States that I would be surprised if Russia passed up," Hill said.

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Follow Julie Pace on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

By Thomas Grove and Steve Gutterman

MOSCOW (Reuters) - China and Russia rejected U.S. accusations they helped a former U.S. spy agency contractor escape prosecution in the United States, deepening a rift between powers whose cooperation may be essential in settling global conflicts including the Syrian war.

Despite public outrage, however, there was a sense Moscow andWashington sought to limit damage over Edward Snowden, whose flight from justice has embarrassed President Barack Obama. After tough U.S. statements a day earlier, Secretary of State John Kerryurged "calm and reasonableness" on Tuesday.

Snowden, charged with disclosing secret U.S. surveillance programs, left Hong Kong for Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on Sunday. The U.S. State Department said diplomats and Justice Department officials were talking to Russia, suggesting they sought a deal to secure his return to face espionage charges.

An airport source said the 30-year-old American, who has asked for asylum in Ecuador, had flown in on Sunday and had been booked on a flight to Cuba on Monday but had not got on board.

Journalists camped out at the airport have not spotted him inside, or leaving, the transit area, and say a heavy security presence has been relaxed for the past 24 hours. He has not registered at a hotel in the transit zone, hotel sources say.

A receptionist at the Capsule Hotel "Air Express", a complex of 47 basic rooms furnished predominantly with grey carpets and grey walls, said Snowden had turned up on Sunday, looked at the price list and then left.

U.S. officials admonished Beijing and Moscow on Monday for allowing Snowden to escape their clutches but the United States' partners on the U.N. Security Council, already at odds with Washington over the conflict in Syria, hit back indignantly.

"The United States' criticism of China's central government is baseless. China absolutely cannot accept it," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in Beijing, also dismissing U.S. criticism of Hong Kong, a Chinese territory, for letting Snowden leave.

FSB INTEREST?

In the first comment on the affair by a senior Russian officials since Snowden arrived, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied suggestions Moscow had helped Snowden in any way, including by allowing him to fly into Sheremetyevo.

"He chose his itinerary on his own. We learnt about it ... from the media. He has not crossed the Russian border," he said. "We consider the attempts to accuse the Russian side of violating U.S. laws, and practically of involvement in a plot, to be absolutely groundless and unacceptable."

There is growing speculation in the Russian media that Snowden may be talking to the FSB security service, a successor of the Soviet-era KGB, and could be involved in a prisoner swap.

"Lavrov always chooses his words carefully," said a Russian security source. "From his statement you can deduce the following: that he (Snowden) is either outside Russia or still in the transit zone. He is a tasty morsel for any, any secret service, also for ours."

Deputy parliamentary speaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky has proposed Snowden be exchanged for Viktor Bout, a Russian jailed in the United States for drug trafficking, requests for whose extradition have been ignored.

Fallout from a protracted wrangle over Snowden could be far-reaching, as Russia, the United States and China hold veto powers at the U.N. Security Council and their broad agreement could be vital to any settlement in Syria.

International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said on Tuesday he was pessimistic an international conference on Syria could take place in July as hoped and urged Russia and the United States to help contain a conflict which has killed almost 100,000 people.

Kerry said there was no cause to raise tensions over "something that is frankly basic and normal as this."

"It is accurate there is not an extradition treaty between Russia and the United states, but there are standards of behavior between sovereign nations," he said, in Jeddah.

Lavrov's insistence Snowden had not entered Russia implies he has not left the airport transit area, used by passengers flying from one non-Russian airport to another without going through passport control or requiring an entry visa.

The transit area is Russian sovereign territory, but it could be argued that in staying there Snowden had not formally entered the country - a move that could implicate President Vladimir Putin in helping a fugitive. Russia appears, at least for the moment, reluctant to take such a step.

REFUGEE DOCUMENT

Interfax news agency quoted a source "in the Russian capital" as saying Snowden could be detained to check the validity of his passport if he crossed the Russian border.

Snowden is travelling on a refugee document of passage provided by Ecuador, the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said.

Snowden, whose exposure of the surveillance raised questions about civil liberties in the United States, flew to Moscow after being allowed to leave Hong Kong even though Washington had asked the Chinese territory to detain him.

Snowden, until recently a contractor with the U.S. National Security Agency, had been expected to fly to Havana from Moscow on Monday and eventually go on to Ecuador, according to sources at the Russian airline Aeroflot.

There is no direct flight from Moscow to Quito, which has said it was considering Snowden's asylum request. The Quito government has been sheltering WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at its London embassy for the past year.

U.S. officials said intelligence agencies were concerned they did not know how much sensitive material Snowden had and that he may have taken more documents than initially estimated which could get into the hands of foreign intelligence.

(Additional reporting Gabriela Baczynska and Lidia Kelly in Moscow, Alexandra Valencia in Quito, Mark Felsenthal, Paul Eckert and Mark Hosenball in Washington and Katya Golubkova in Havana, Writing by Elizabeth Piper and Timothy Heritage, editing by Ralph Boulton)

MOSCOW (AP) — A plane took off from Moscow Monday headed for Cuba, but the seat booked by National Security Agency leakerEdward Snowden was empty, and there was no sign of him elsewhere on board.

An Aeroflot representative who wouldn't give her name told TheAssociated Press that Snowden wasn't on flight SU150 to Havana. AP reporters on the flight couldn't see him.

The Interfax news agency also quoted an unidentified Russian security source in Moscow as saying that Snowden wasn't on the plane.

The airline said earlier Snowden registered for the flight using hisU.S. passport, which American officials say has been annulled.

Snowden arrived in Moscow on Sunday from Hong Kong, where he had been hiding for several weeks to evade U.S. justice. Ecuador is considering Snowden's asylum application.

After spending a night in Moscow's airport, the former National Security Agency contractor — and admitted leaker of state secrets — had been expected to fly to Cuba and Venezuela en route to possible asylum in Ecuador.

Snowden, also a former CIA technician, fled Hong Kong to dodge U.S. efforts to extradite him on espionage charges. Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said his government had received an asylum request, adding Monday that the decision "has to do with freedom of expression and with the security of citizens around the world." The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks also said it would help Snowden.

Ecuador has rejected the United States' previous efforts at cooperation, and has been helpingWikiLeaks founder Julian Assange avoid prosecution by allowing him to stay at its embassy in London.

Snowden gave documents to The Guardian and The Washington Post newspapers disclosing U.S. surveillance programs that collect vast amounts of phone records and online data in the name of foreign intelligence, often sweeping up information on American citizens. Officials have the ability to collect phone and Internet information broadly but need a warrant to examine specific cases where they believe terrorism is involved.

Snowden had been in hiding for several weeks in Hong Kong, a former British colony with a high degree of autonomy from mainland China. The United States formally sought Snowden's extradition from Hong Kong to face espionage charges but was rebuffed; Hong Kong officials said the U.S. request did not fully comply with their laws.

The Justice Department rejected that claim, saying its request met all of the requirements of the extradition treaty between the U.S. and Hong Kong. During conversations last week, including a phone call Wednesday between Attorney General Eric Holder and Hong Kong Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen, Hong Kong officials never raised any issues regarding sufficiency of the U.S. request, a Justice representative said.

The United States was in touch through diplomatic and law enforcement channels with countries that Snowden could travel through or to, reminding them that Snowden is wanted on criminal charges and reiterating Washington's position that Snowden should only be permitted to travel back to the U.S., a State Department official said. Snowden's U.S. passport has been revoked.

U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the case.

Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said, "Given our intensified cooperation after the Boston marathon bombings and our history of working with Russia on law enforcement matters — including returning numerous high-level criminals back to Russia at the request of the Russian government — we expect the Russian government to look at all options available to expel Mr. Snowden back to the U.S. to face justice for the crimes with which he is charged."

Still, the United States is likely to have problems interrupting Snowden's passage. The United States does not have an extradition treaty with Russia, but does with Cuba, Venezuela and Ecuador. Even with an extradition agreement though, any country could give Snowden a political exemption.

The likelihood that any of these countries would stop Snowden from traveling on to Ecuador seemed remote. While diplomatic tensions have thawed in recent years, Cuba and the United States are hardly allies after a half-century of distrust. Another country that could see Snowden pass through, Venezuela, could prove difficult, as well. Former President Hugo Chavez was a sworn enemy of the United States and his successor, Nicolas Maduro, earlier this year called President Barack Obama "grand chief of devils." The two countries do not exchange ambassadors.

Snowden's options aren't numerous, said Assange's lawyer, Michael Ratner.

"You have to have a country that's going to stand up to the United States," Ratner said. "You're not talking about a huge range of countries here."

It also wasn't clear Snowden was finished disclosing highly classified information.

Snowden has perhaps more than 200 sensitive documents, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

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Associated Press White House Correspondent Julie Pace and Associated Press writers Philip Elliott, Matthew Lee and Frederic J. Frommer in Washington, Lynn Berry in Moscow, Kevin Chan in Hong Kong and Sylvia Hui in London contributed to this report.

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Follow Philip Elliott on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/philip_elliott

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Rafael Correa of Ecuadorembraces his role as a thorn in Washington's side, railing against U.S. imperialism in speeches and giving WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange refuge in his nation's embassy in London.

But nothing Correa has done to rankle the United States is likely to infuriate as much as granting the asylum being sought by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who faces espionage charges back home after revealing details of two highly secret surveillance programs.

Snowden flew from Hong Kong to Moscow on Sunday, and had been widely expected to fly on to Cuba — an ally of Ecuador — on Monday. But when the plane from Moscow took off Monday, Snowden was not in the seat he had booked and there was no sign of him elsewhere on board.

Even so, Ecuadoran Foreign Minister confirmed on Monday that his government is analyzing the request for asylum. He told reporters during a visit to Vietnam that it "has to do with freedom of expression and with the security of citizens around the world," a strong hint Correa would accept the petition.

"Correa may find it hard to resist the temptation to get increased attention and seize this opportunity to provoke and defy the U.S.," said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank. "Correa is confrontational and relishes fights. Should he ultimately grant Snowden asylum, one hopes that Correa has thought through the likely consequences of such a decision."

Taking in Snowden certainly would increase Correa's popularity among those who see him as a champion of open information, help him counter criticism of a new media law that some call an assault on freedom of speech in Ecuador and cement his name as a leading voice of opposition to U.S. foreign policy.

But it could threaten preferential access to U.S. markets for Ecuadorean goods under the U.S. Andean Trade Preference Act, and strain already shaky ties between two nations that only last year re-established full diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level.

Some 45 percent of Ecuadorean exports went to the United States last year, accounting for about 400,000 jobs in the small nation.

Giving Snowden asylum for leaking secret information would be "irresponsible," former Ecuadorean diplomat Mauricio Gandara said.

"It would be an illegal act, because what he has done is a crime in both the United States and Ecuador," said Gandara, who was Ecuador's ambassador in London. "It is a confrontation with the people and government of the United States and both (political) parties. It is an unnecessary conflict."

Ecuadorean analyst Grace Jaramillo said Washington takes the Snowden case more seriously than Assange's because it involves an internal leak of intelligence activities that otherwise operate in total secrecy.

"The United States will keep pushing until the end for Snowden to be handed over, and could even resort to commercial sanctions or direct intervention if the case becomes difficult," Jaramillo said.

Yet, granting him safe passage and refuge has appeal for Ecuador as well as Cuba and Venezuela, which have all been criticized for rules limiting independent media.

"This is a case in which I think the U.S. does not look all that good," said David Smilde, a Venezuela expert at the University of Georgia.

"I think it's quite useful for either Venezuela or Ecuador to grant a person like this asylum, because it allows them to sort of deflect attention towards the United States and the United States' own shortcomings," Smilde said.

The Cuban state controls all TV, radio and newspapers. Venezuela has done things like forcing TV stations off the air by not renewing licenses and detaining people for tweets deemed destabilizing. Ecuador's media law, approved last week, establishes official media overseers, imposes sanctions for besmirching personal reputations and limits private ownership to a third of radio and TV licenses.

But Cuba and Venezuela are both in the midst of quiet thaws in long-chilly ties with the United States, and taking in Snowden would likely damage those efforts.

Last week, Cuba and the United States held talks on restarting direct mail service, and announced that a separate sit-down to discuss immigration issues will be held in Washington on July 17.

Diplomats and officials from both countries also report far greater cooperation in behind-the-scenes dealings, including during a brief incident involving a Florida couple who sought asylum in Cuba after kidnapping their own children. Cuba worked with U.S. officials to quickly send the couple back to face justice.

Philip Peters, a longtime Cuba analyst, said allowing Snowden to pass through Cuban territory would not necessarily doom rapprochement, though he acknowledged the fallout would be unpredictable.

"My guess is that it would be a blip, because Cuba, by allowing him to pass through Cuban territory, is hardly embracing his actions, or sheltering him or giving him asylum," Peters said.

It's the same story for Venezuela, which earlier this month agreed to high-level negotiations on restoring ambassadorial relations and easing more than a decade of sour ties. That announcement came after a meeting in Guatemala between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua.

Caracas has huge commercial dealings with the United States, which remains the No. 1 buyer of Venezuela's oil.

"It's much better for President Nicolas Maduro that (Snowden) is not going to Venezuela," said Gregory Weeks, a political scientist specializing in Latin America at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. "It's something that Maduro really doesn't want to have to deal with, whereas Correa, he's already in it (by giving Assange asylum). So of all the places to go, Ecuador is logical."

Being placed on the international stage by Snowden's asylum bid drew mixed reactions from Ecuadoreans.

"People who steal information or any other thing should face the consequences, and Ecuador shouldn't get involved," said Maria Jimenez, a 42-year-old homemaker.

Jorge Rojas Cruzatti, a 34-year-old web designer, disagreed.

"I'm proud of my country ... and more than pride, I'm glad that human rights are being protected," he said. "Other countries wouldn't dare grant this type of support to citizens who are helping protect freedom of expression."

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Associated Press writers Gonzalo Solano in Quito, Ecuador; Paul Haven in Havana; Vivian Sequera in Bogota, Colombia; and Luis Andres Henao in Santiago, Chile, contributed to this report.