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Russian Lawmaker: Venezuela May Be Last Chance For Snowden

NPR | By Krishnadev Calamur
Published July 7, 2013 at 3:43 PM CDT

A prominent member of Russia's parliament is adding to pressure on former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden to leave Russia.

AS NPR's Corey Flintoff reports, Alexei Pushkov, the head of the foreign affairs committee in Russia's parliament, said on Twitter that Venezuela is waiting for an answer from Snowden, adding that this might be the 30-year-old computer analyst's last chance to receive asylum.

And The Associated Press notes that "Pushkov's comments appeared to indicate that the Kremlin is now anxious to be rid of the former National Security Agency systems analyst, whom the U.S. wants returned to face espionage charges."

As Mark noted on Saturday, Snowden's been lingering in legal limbo for nearly two weeks at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport. He's been offered asylum by three Latin American nations — Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela — but hasn't made any public response to the offers.

Also Sunday, Brazil asked "for clarifications" through the U.S. embassy about revelations that the U.S. spied on millions of emails and phone calls of Brazilians. Brazil had earlier rejected a request from Snowden for asylum.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Krishnadev Calamur
Krishnadev Calamur is NPR's deputy Washington editor. In this role, he helps oversee planning of the Washington desk's news coverage. He also edits NPR's Supreme Court coverage. Previously, Calamur was an editor and staff writer at The Atlantic. This is his second stint at NPR, having previously worked on NPR's website from 2008-15. Calamur received an M.A. in journalism from the University of Missouri.
See stories by Krishnadev Calamur