Snowden given Russia asylum, leaves airport

August 01, 2013 21:25

Fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden today left the Moscow airport where he was marooned for five weeks, after Russia granted him one year's asylum in a move that risks infuriating Washington.

Snowden slipped out of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport in a cloak-and-dagger operation overseen by his Russian lawyer but unnoticed by the hordes of media trying to follow his every move.

The former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor was whisked away to an undisclosed location, leaving his lawyer to reveal that Snowden had received temporary asylum in Russia just two weeks after making an application.

"Snowden has left Sheremetyevo airport. He has just been given a certificate that he has been awarded temporary asylum in Russia for one year," lawyer Anatoly Kucherena said.

A spokeswoman for Sheremetyevo confirmed he had left the airport after 1000 GMT. A grainy still image published by Rossiya 24 television showed a young man with a rucksack -- apparently Snowden -- about to get into a car outside the airport.

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