CHITA, July 17 (Itar-Tass) - The Russian authorities have no intention to go into details of actions taken by former CIA agent Edward Snowden, who was warned of inadmissibility of actions positing threat to the United States.
“We have no plans to go into details,” Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters on Wednesday. “We warned Mr. Snowden that any of his actions damaging Russian-US relations are inadmissible for us.” “We cannot and will not behave ourselves as many other countries do,” he said.
Interstate relations between Russia and the United States are more important than security services’ squabbles, as stated by Vladimir Putin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that the situation around Edward Snowden and similar cases should not complicate the inter-state relations. “We have our tasks, including concerning the development of relations with the United States,” the Russian head of state told reporters. “We have an independent foreign policy,” he said.
“I hope our partners will take this calmly and with understanding,” stated the president. “The interstate relations are more important than squabbling between security services,” he is certain.
“Human rights activities are interrelated with certain costs for those who engage in them,” Putin said. “But when such activities are carried out under the aegis of the United States and its support - financial, information and political one, it is rather a comfortable business, but if somebody intends to start criticizing the United States, of course this is a more complicated business.”
The incident with Bolivian President Evo Morales’s plane proved this once again, he said.
“In my opinion, Edward Snowden has never set a goal to sit at our place, in Russia, endlessly,” Putin said. “He is a young man and in fact, I even do not understand quite well how he dared to do this, how he plans to build his future life, but this is his future and his choice.”
On Tuesday Russian federal migration service chief Konstantin Romodanovsky confirmed that the FMS received Snowden’s political asylum bid.
“These documents will be considered within the period set by the law, i.e. within three months,” he said.
The head of the Public Chamber’s commission, Anatoly Kucherena, said Snowden applied for a temporary asylum. However, the lawyer noted that Snowden’s application did not give him the right to cross the border.
On July 2 while returning home from the Gas Exporting Countries Forum in Moscow Evo Morales’s plane was diverted to Vienna amid suspicions that it was carrying Edward Snowden. Bolivia and other Latin American countries denounced this incident as a kidnapping attempt with grave violation of international agreements.