Russian tweet on Snowden asylum apparently deleted

A tweet in which a senior Russian lawmaker said former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden had accepted an offer of asylum in Venezuela appeared to have been deleted from his Twitter feed shortly after it was posted.
   
Lawmaker Alexei Pushkov, the chairman of the international affairs committee in Russia's lower parliament house, could not immediately be reached for comment. A Russian Foreign Ministry official declined immediate comment.

Earlier, a senior Russian lawmaker said that Snowden, who is wanted in the United States on espionage charges, has accepted Venezuela's offer of asylum.

"Snowden has given his agreement to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's offer of political asylum," Alexei Pushkov, the pro-Kremlin chairman of the international affairs committee in Russia's lower parliament house, said on Twitter.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro confirmed on Monday that his government had received an official request for asylum from former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden, who leaked a number of details of top secret US government surveillance programs to the media.

Speaking after attending a military graduation ceremony in Caracas, Maduro said it was now up to Snowden when he wanted to fly to Venezuela and if he definitely wanted to come to the country.

He also said that Snowden was being offered "collective" asylum by various countries in Latin America.

Snowden is currently believed to be in a Moscow airport transit area, seeking asylum from one of more than a dozen countries.


REUTERS