Russia grants Edward Snowden 1-year Renewable Asylum

Wanted-by-America whistle-blower, Edward Snowden has left Sheremetyevoin in Moscow after getting Asylum...

Source:Ruvr

Snowden Has Left Moscow's Airport, As Russia Grants Asylum

NSA leaker Edward Snowden has left Moscow's airport, his Russian legal adviser and others told reporters Thursday. Snowden arrived at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport from Hong Kong more than one month ago, after news media published a trove of secret U.S. documents supplied by the former National Security Agency contractor.

Snowden's Russian adviser, Anatoly Kucherena, "has told reporters that he passed along documents to Edward Snowden allowing him to enter Russian soil," NPR's Corey Flintoff reports from Moscow. "Kucherena and sources at Sheremetyevo Airport says Snowden has left the airport."

Multiple media outlets and WikiLeaks were reporting that Snowden has been granted asylum for a period of at least one year.

Earlier Thursday, WikiLeaks tweeted, "Edward Snowden has successfully acquired refugee status in Russia and will shortly leave the airport."

We will update this post with more details as they emerge.

Update at 8:35 a.m. ET: WikiLeaks Reacts To Snowden's Departure
"We would like to thank the Russian people and all those others who have helped to protect Mr. Snowden," WikiLeaks says. "We have won the battle —now the war."

The anti-secrecy group, which has been in contact with Snowden since he was in Hong Kong, says that the American "has now left Moscow airport under the care of WikiLeaks' Sarah Harrison."

Read more here.