12 Jul 2013 17:42

Snowden wants to stay in Russia - HRW officer

MOSCOW. July 12 (Interfax) - Former CIA employee Edward Snowden wants to stay in Russia, which he said at a meeting with human rights activists at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport on Friday.

Snowden "wants to stay here and cannot fly to Latin America for the time being," Tatyana Lokshina, a deputy head of the Moscow office of Human Rights Watch, told Interfax.

Snowden asked the rights activists attending the meeting to help him obtain asylum in Russia, she said.

"Yes, it's about asylum in Russia," Lokshina said when asked whether Snowden had asked for help.