Edward Snowden’s list for asylum options grows smaller

Edward Snowden’s list of options for where to go next from the Moscow airport continues to grow smaller. Several countries have already said that they will turn down the NSA whistleblower’s requests for asylum and he has withdrawn his application for asylum in Russia.

Snowden is currently staying in the Moscow airport in an area that Russian officials have said is not officially Russian territory. On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that if Snowden wants to stay in his country, “He should cease his work aimed at damaging our American partners. No matter how strange it will sound from me,” reports NBC News.

That was shortly followed by a new statement from Snowden, in which he blasted the Obama Administration. “The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon,” Snowden wrote. “This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me.”

Wikileaks first said that Snowden applied for asylum in 20 countries, including Russia, Ecuador, India, Cuba, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. However, the BBC reports that many of these countries have already said that they will not take him in and he withdrew his application to Russia after Putin’s statement.

Austria, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Spain and Switzerland wouldn’t accept the requests because they weren’t made from their own territories. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslav Sikorski said in a tweet that he couldn’t “give a positive recommendation.” According to Reuters, France said it never received an official request.

The Times of India reports that India’s foreign ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin did confirm that they received a request from Snowden, but “Following careful examination, we have concluded that we see no reason to accede to Snowden's request.”

Snowden has been charged with espionage for leaking National Security Agency documents on its surveillance programs.

image: YouTube

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