Edward Snowden Granted Temporary Asylum In Russia

NBC's Jim Maceda talks about the one year asylum the NSA leaker was given from Russia.

By Jim Maceda and Alastair Jamieson, NBC News

MOSCOW, Russia - NSA leaker Edward Snowden has been granted temporary asylum in Russia and has left the Moscow airport where he had been stranded for more than a month, his lawyer said Thursday.
An airport representative told Reuters that the former intelligence contractor had already crossed through the immigration line and left the airport.
Snowden's lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, said he wouldn't disclose the 30-year-old fugitive's whereabouts for security reasons.
“He is the most wanted man on planet Earth. What do you think he is going to do? He has to think about his personal security. I cannot tell you where he is going,” Kucherena told Reuters.

“I put him in a taxi 15 to 20 minutes ago and gave him his certificate on getting refugee status in the Russian Federation,” he said. “He can live wherever he wants in Russia. It's his personal choice.”

WikiLeaks posted on Twitter that Snowden had been granted asylum in Russia for a year.

"We would like to thank the Russian people and all those others who have helped to protect Mr. Snowden," it said in a tweet."We have won the battle -- now the war."

Sen. Robert Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement Thursday that Snowden was “a fugitive who belongs in a United States courtroom, not a free man deserving of asylum in Russia.”  “Regardless of the fact that Russia is granting asylum for one year, this action is a setback to U.S.-Russia relations,” he said.  “Edward Snowden will potentially do great damage to U.S. national security interests and the information he is leaking could aid terrorists and others around the world who want to do real harm to our country. Russia must return Snowden to face trial at home.”

Marie Harf, a State Department deputy spokesperson, told reporters Wednesday that Snowden was “not a human rights activist.”
“He’s not a dissident. He’s been accused of leaking classified information, has been charged with three very serious felony counts, and must be, should be, returned to the United States to face a free and fair trial as soon as possible,” she said at the daily briefing.
“We are working through law enforcement channels with the Russian government to make the point that Mr. Snowden is wanted on serious felony charges and needs to be returned to the United States.”
But Harf added that the U.S. had also “made the point that we don’t want this issue to have a hugely negative impact on our bilateral relationship.”
A senior Kremlin official, Yuri Ushakov, told Reuters that he doubted ties between Russia and the United States would suffer because of the “relatively insignificant” Snowden case.
“Our president has ... expressed hope many times that this will not affect the character of our relations,” he told reporters, saying there was no sign that U.S. President Barack Obama would cancel a planned visit to Moscow in September.