Russia has not received a request to extradite Snowden to the US
The Russian Justice Ministry said on July 25 that Moscow has not received an official request from Washington to extradite former US intelligence officer Edward Snowden, who is being sought by the US government and is in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport.
In a statement the same day, the Russian Justice Ministry stated that Moscow had received a letter from US Attorney General Eric Holder explaining the US position on Snowden's status, but the letter did not include a request for the former intelligence officer's extradition or deportation on July 24, the time Snowden was rumored to have left the transit area of Sheremetyevo airport.
Snowden meets human rights activists at Sheremetyevo airport, where he is hiding. (Source: AFP)
US Ambassador to Russia, Mr. Michael McFaul, also affirmed that the US did not ask Russia to extradite Snowden but wanted the person who revealed a series of sensitive intelligence information to return to his country.
The above statements were made in the context of the Russian Business newspaper earlier saying that the US had sent an official document to Moscow and requested Snowden's extradition to the country for trial. Meanwhile, the US Congress is urgently drafting a bill, according to which Washington will apply many sanctions against countries that give Snowden political asylum.
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted unanimously on July 25 to seek to impose trade sanctions or other sanctions on any country that offers asylum to Snowden. The 30-member committee approved an amendment to the spending bill that would require Secretary of State John Kerry to meet with congressional committees to propose sanctions against any country that “harbors” Snowden. Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela have previously said they might grant asylum to Snowden.
In another related development, the revelations of former intelligence officer Snowden have caused a domino effect when several more former employees of the National Security Agency (NSA) decided to reveal US electronic surveillance activities, including the tracking of citizens of European countries.
In an interview with Stern magazine, Mr. U. Binney, a former codebreaker who worked for the NSA for more than 30 years, said that German intelligence began cooperating with the Americans in the 1990s and was transferred electronic surveillance software by the Americans.
According to Mr. Binney, the Archive Center built in the US state of Utah can contain about 40,000-50,000 billion files, which store everything from phone conversation records, electronic letters and even credit card accounts from around the world.
Also in an interview with Star magazine, another former NSA official, Thomas Drake, said that the secret surveillance program called PRISM that Snowden revealed was just "the tip of the iceberg." In fact, this program is just one of 50 spyware programs that feed information into a database codenamed "Starwind."
According to the assertions of former employees of the top secret organization, this electronic surveillance program can cover the entire world, and no one can escape this network./.
According to (TTXVN) - DT