{{Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said Moscow\u2019s relations with Washington outweighed the \u201csquabbles\u201d over a spying scandal revealed by US fugitive Edward Snowden, who has applied for asylum in Russia.}}<\/p>\n
\u201cRelations between states are much more important than squabbles surrounding the work of security services,\u201d Putin was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency.<\/p>\n
Putin\u2019s remarks came after the White House voiced opposition to Snowden\u2019s request for a safe haven in Russia as he tries to evade US espionage charges.<\/p>\n
The former National Security Agency contractor has been marooned at Moscow\u2019s Sheremetyevo airport since June 23 after leaking details of a massive US surveillance programme that has strained ties with Washington\u2019s allies.<\/p>\n
Washington has rubbished the notion that Snowden could be viewed as a human rights activist and has criticised Moscow for providing the 30-year-old with a \u201cpropaganda platform\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe there is ample legal justification for the return of Mr. Snowden to the United States, where he has been charged with serious felonies,\u201d White House spokesman Jay Carney said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to continue (the US-Russia) relationship unimpeded by this issue,\u201d Carney said. \u201cAnd we believe there is a way to move forward here that allows for Mr. Snowden to return to the United States\u2026 and for Russia to resolve this situation that they have been dealing with now for three weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Snowden filed an application for temporary asylum with the Russian migration service, starting a process that could take up to three months.<\/p>\n
Putin, meanwhile, reiterated his earlier stance that Snowden would only be welcome to stay in Russia if he did not harm the United States with further leaks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have warned Mr. Snowden, that any activity on his part that has to do with harming Russia-US relations is unacceptable for us,\u201d Putin said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is his fate and his choice,\u201d Putin said of Snowden\u2019s request to stay in Russia. \u201cWe have our own state interests, including those directed at building Russia-US relations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said Moscow\u2019s relations with Washington outweighed the \u201csquabbles\u201d over a spying scandal revealed by US fugitive Edward Snowden, who has applied for asylum in Russia.}} \u201cRelations between states are much more important than squabbles surrounding the work of security services,\u201d Putin was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-9126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9126"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=9126"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=9126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}