Fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden on Thursday left Moscow airport, where he was marooned five weeks, after Russia granted him a year’s asylum in a move that risks infuriating Washington.
Edward Snowden slipped out of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport in a cloak-and-dagger operation overseen by his Russian lawyer but unnoticed by media hordes trying to follow his every move.
The former NSA contractor was whisked away to an undisclosed location, leaving his lawyer to reveal Snowden had got temporary asylum in Russia just two weeks after making an application.
“Snowden has left Sheremetyevo. He has just been given
a certificate that he has been awarded temporary asylum in Russia for one year,” lawyer Anatoly Kucherena said.