Snowden to stay in Russia

MOSCOW - National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, who fled to Moscow’s airport a month ago, aims to stay in Russia for the near future and learn the country’s culture and language, his lawyer said Wednesday.

To get him started, Anatoly Kucherena said he gave Snowden a copy of Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s lengthy novel about the torment and redemption of a man who thought himself outside the law.

“I am not talking about the similarity of inner contradictions,” Kucherena said after meeting Snowden in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo international airport, where Snowden has apparently been marooned since arriving from Hong Kong on June 23.

The day’s developments left the White House - and nearly everyone else - “seeking clarity” about the status of the man who revealed details of a National Security Agency program to monitor Internet and telephone communications.

When Snowden first arrived at Sheremetyevo, he was believed to be planning just to transfer to a flight to Cuba and then to Venezuela to seek asylum. But the United States, which wants him returned for prosecution, canceled his passport, stranding him. He hasn’t been seen in public since, although he met with human-rights activists and lawyers July 12.

Snowden then applied for temporary asylum in Russia, saying he eventually wanted to visit countries that had offered him asylum: Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua.

It’s unclear how long Russia will take to decide on the asylum request. Kucherena’s meeting Wednesday with Snowden was preceded by a flurry of reports that said the lawyer would give him documentation that would allow him to leave the airport while the asylum process is under way.

But Kucherena said he had no such paperwork to pass along. The Federal Migration Service, which would issue such a document, said it had no information.

Asked about Snowden’slong-term intentions, Kucherena told state television that “Russia is his final destination for now. He doesn’t look further into the future than that.”

The case has provoked considerable tension between Moscow and Washington, at a particularly sensitive time - less than two months before President Barack Obama had planned to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and again at the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the U.S. was “seeking clarity” as the reports swirled of Snowden’s possible imminent departure from the airport. The head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Robert Menendez, said “providing any refuge to Edward Snowden will be harmful to U.S.-Russia relations.”

Snowden’s presence in Russia has further strainedrelations with the U.S. weeks before Obama is scheduled to meet with Putin in Moscow in early September just ahead of a meeting of Group of 20 nations in St. Petersburg.

The Obama administration has repeatedly urged Russia to expel Snowden to the U.S. and White House officials have repeatedly declined to confirm that the meeting with Putin will proceed.

“It is our view that Mr. Snowden should be expelled and returned to the United States,” Carney said Wednesday. Regarding any meeting with Putin, he would only say that Obama “intends to travel to Russia for the G-20 summit.”

Russian officials this week issued public statements noting that the United States has routinely rejected extradition requests from the Russian government, apparently to send a message that the Americans have no right to expect Snowden’s repatriation.

Kucherena, the lawyer, speaking to a crowd of reporters, said he had been trying toget a determination from the migration service.

“Concerning today’s situation, I spent lots of time working on the question today, and currently the question is not resolved,” he said, adding, “He is located here, and he is living here.”

“The situation is not standard for Russia,” he said. “There is lots of bureaucracy to get through, the documents are still being looked over.”

Kucherena told journalists that he had brought fresh clothes for Snowden, whom he said had been wearing the same clothes he had when he arrived from Hong Kong.

If Snowden gets the documentation to leave the airport, that would only allow him to travel outside Russia, for which he’d need other identification papers, Kucherena said. How long that might take is unclear.

“Edward is understanding about this and he hasn’t been refused anything - the process is simply being drawn out somewhat,” Kucherena said.

U.S.-Russian relations are already strained by Washington’s criticism of Russia’s pressure on opposition groups, its suspicion of U.S. missile-defense plans in Europe, and its support for the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Meanwhile, Bolivian President Evo Morales said he’s returning his ambassadors to Spain, France, Italy and Portugal after the European nations apologized for refusing to let his plane fly over amid apparent suspicions Snowden was aboard.

Morales told reporters Wednesday he’s not fully satisfied with the apologies but maintaining respectful relations is important.

Bolivia said the countries forced Morales to make an unscheduled 14-hour stop on July 2 in Vienna where he eventually allowed Austrian border police to search it.

Morales said the countries were acting at Washington’s behest.

Information for this article was contributed by Jim Heintz, Nataliya Vasilyeva and Laura Mill of The Associated Press; by Roger Runningen and Hans Nichols of Bloomberg News; and by David M. Herszenhorn and Steven Lee Myers of The New York Times.