Russiaâ„¢s Justice Ministry has said American whistleblower Edward Snowden can stay in the transit zone of Moscowâ„¢s Sheremetyevo airport as long as he pleases.
In a statement on Saturday, Russiaâ„¢s Justice Ministry said that under Russian laws there is no limit to the amount of time Snowden can stay in the international transit zone and that the international law does not allow Russia to return Snowden to the US.
Å“Russian law does not stipulate the duration of time for which a foreign citizen may stay in the airport’s transit zone or liability for staying for a long time in an airport’s transit zone without documents,” said the Justice Ministry.
Å“As a rule, the term ‘return’ in Russian law and practice is applied to voluntary entry of individuals from abroad into the country whose citizens they are,” the Ministry added.
On Wednesday, US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said that Washington is not asking Russia to extradite Snowden but to return him to the US.
In a phone interview with Press TV on Thursday, Jeffrey Steinberg, a senior editor of the Executive Intelligence Review, said the appointment of McFaul by US President Barack Obama as the US ambassador to Moscow was Å“a provocative action” that Å“heightened unnecessarily frictions between the US and Russia.”
Steinberg also said that US officials were struggling to Å“scapegoat Russia as a way of diverting attention from the fact that theyâ„¢re desperate to get their hands on Snowden and to silence him.”
Snowden flew to Moscow from Hong Kong on June 23 and has been in the transit area of Moscowâ„¢s main international airport since then with his travel documents revoked by the US.
Washington has charged Snowden with espionage but has assured Russia that it would not execute or torture him if Moscow handed over the former US National Security Agency contractor.
Last month, Snowden blew the lid on massive surveillance by the NSA including two major spying programs, one for gathering US phone records and another, codenamed PRISM, for tracking the use of US-based web servers by American citizens and other nationals.
Other leaked document also showed that the NSA has spied on European Union representations, ordinary European citizens, and companies and individuals in Latin America.
ISH/ISH
Republished from: Press TV