Russia warding off US' 'hypocritical' extradition calls for 'fugitive' Snowden

Russian government is reportedly pushing back US extradition requests for whistleblower Edward Snowden who has applied for temporary asylum in Russia.

According to Politico, calling US hypocritical, the Russian authorities have said that US routinely ignores their calls for extradition of individuals charged with serious or heinous crimes.

Acting chief of the prosecutor general's extradition office Sergei Gorlenko said that Russia has been denied extradition of murderers, bandits and bribetakers.

Spokesman of the Russian Interior ministry, Andrey Pilipchuk said that law agencies asked the US on many occasions to extradite wanted criminals through Interpol channels, but those requests were neither met nor even responded to.

As the US and Russia do not have any extradition treaty, Russian government's decision to not extradite Snowden could be potential leverage for US' denial of extraditing 20 suspects over the past decade.

Meanwhile, American ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul reiterated that Snowden must be returned to the US to face the felony charges against him.

The report added that Snowden has applied for a temporary asylum in Russia and agreed to consider President Vladimir Putin's demand of not leaking US intelligence details any further if he wants to seek asylum in the country.