Snowden asks Putin on live TV if Russia spies like US

Edward Snowden, the former US security contractor under asylum in Russia, made a rare appearance today, asking President Vladimir Putin if the nation spies on its citizens like the US.

"Does Russia intercept, store or analyse in any way the communications of millions of individuals?" Snowden asked the former KGB colonel through a video link from an unidentified location during Putin's annual live call-in show, broadcast nationwide from central Moscow.

Snowden's disclosures about US surveillance last year set off a global debate over the trade-offs between privacy and security. The London-based Guardian and Washington Post shared a Pulitzer prize this week for reporting on his revelations about the top-secret US programmes, which have led President Barack Obama to propose limits to surveillance.

"We do it of course, but we don't allow ourselves such a massive, out-of-control scale," Putin said about gathering communications in the fight against terrorism and financial crime, after a hasty translation by one of the television channel's presenters.

"I hope we will not get there," said Putin, who addressed the fugitive formally as "Dear Mr Snowden." "We don't have the necessary technical means and funds as the US does. Our special services are under strict control by the government and society."

Caitlin Hayden, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said the White House had no comment on Snowden's appearance.

The US has charged Snowden with espionage and the administration has repeatedly demanded that he be returned to the US, where he faces espionage charges.