Snowden officially asks for asylum in Russia

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, an analyst with a U.S. defence contractor, is seen in this still image taken from video during an interview by The Guardian in his hotel room in Hong Kong June 6, 2013.  [Photo/Agencies]

MOSCOW - US intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden has filed an official request for temporary asylum in Russia, lawyer Anatoly Kucherena said Tuesday.

"Because Snowden cannot leave the transit area of the Sheremetyevo (Airport), he completed all necessary forms, wrote a request and gave it to a Russian Federal Migration Service employee invited there for that purpose," the Interfax news agency quoted Kucherena as saying.

The lawyer said earlier in the day he had explained to Snowden the Russian law on refugees, the president's decree on political asylum and the government's resolution on temporary asylum, hinting the whistleblower will make his decision soon.

Kucherena and a number of other lawyers as well as rights campaigners met with Snowden in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo Airport last Friday.