Snowden to seek temporary asylum in Russia pending 'safe passage' to Latin America

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has reportedly said that he wants to seek temporary asylum in Russia till there is a 'safe passage' for him to get to Latin America.

According to Stuff.co.nz, Snowden had a meeting with Human Rights Watch officials at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport where he has been holed up for weeks.

The US State Department repeated its call on Russia to extradite Snowden and said that its action would 'raise concerns' for giving him a 'propaganda platform'.

Deputy Head of the Moscow office of Human Rights Watch, Tanya Lokshina said that Snowden wants to move further on to Latin America adding that in order to be guaranteed safety in Russia, the only way for him to go was to file a formal asylum plea.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said it would raise concerns in the US-Russian relationship if Moscow were to accept an asylum request from Snowden.

The report said that Russian president Vladimir Putin had earlier put a condition that if Snowden wishes to seek asylum in the country he should stop his activities which could harm the US.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Snowden should 'fully refrain from actions inflicting damage on American partners and on Russian-American relations to which Snowden agreed and said that he would give up his political activity against US.

Putin has made clear that Russia would not extradite Snowden to US.

Snowden reacting to US' attempts at threatening aiding countries said that the unlawful threat makes it impossible for him to travel to Latin America and enjoy the asylum granted there in accordance with the shared rights, the report added.