Snowden Hasn't Crossed Russia's Borders, Lavrov Says

Russia does not have any connection with fugitive former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has declared.

Lavrov said the former CIA employee wanted by the US for leaking state secrets had not crossed the Russian border.

“I want to say right away that we have nothing to do with Snowden, or with his attitude to the American legal system, or with his movements around the world. He chose his own route, and we found out about it – like most people here – from the media,” the Russian Foreign Minister told reporters, as cited by RIA Novosti.

Snowden, accompanied by Sarah Harrison, a representative of whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, was being kept out of public view at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport transit area, according to an airport source who spoke to RIA Novosti on Monday after Snowden failed to get on a Cuba-bound plane that he had reportedly been checked in for. Staying in the transit zone of an airport would not constitute crossing the country’s border.

There has, as yet, been no confirmed sighting of Snowden in Moscow.

Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow considered "attempts to accuse Russia of breaking US laws and practically of being part of a conspiracy – and accompanied by threats directed at us – as totally unfounded and unacceptable."

His comments came in response to a warning made on Monday by US Secretary of State John Kerry, who said Russia and China’s relations with the US would be damaged if it emerged that they had ignored extradition requests for Snowden.

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