Russia faces US ire over Snowden asylum

Russia on Friday faced the wrath of the United States after granting asylum to fugitive intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, who was settling into a safe house after over five weeks marooned in a Moscow airport transit zone. The whereabouts of Snowden, who is wanted by the United States after leaking details of vast US surveillance programmes remained a mystery with his lawyer refusing to disclose the location for security reasons. The White House said it was "extremely disappointed" by Moscow's decision to grant Snowden asylum, adding that it would now review the need for a planned summit between President Barack Obama and President Vladimir Putin in September. Nicknamed "the invisible man" by journalists, the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor yesterday walked out of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport unnoticed and took a taxi to a secret location. He now has temporary asylum in Russia for a year. Today, the pro-Kremlin Life News website published a photograph showing Snowden smiling broadly as he walked through the airport arrivals area with a rucksack on his back and carrying another bag. He was shown accompanied by his Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena and a staff member of WikiLeaks anti-secrecy website, Sarah Harrison, as well as an unidentified dark-haired woman. Snowden and Harrison had stayed in the transit zone of the airport north of Moscow since flying in from Hong Kong on June 23. Kucherena said Snowden would eventually emerge into public view and give interviews but the fugitive first required an "adaptation course" after so long in the transit zone. "He has sorted out where he will live, everything is fine," Kucherena told the news agency today. WikiLeaks said in a statement Snowden is now in a "secure, confidential place". The founder of Russia's most popular social network VKontakte -28-year-old Pavel Durov offered Snowden a job as a programmer but Kucherena said he was still deciding what he would do. Kucherena said Snowden is being helped by a group of "American friends" who he got to know while staying in the transit zone but has not given further details on their identity. Snowden thanked Russia and slammed the administration of US President Barack Obama for having "no respect" for international or domestic law. "But in the end the law is winning," he said in the WikiLeaks statement.