Russia: Snowden's Not Here (But Even If He Was…)

Responding to aggressive pressure and public demands from US officials that they turn over NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, Russia's foreign minister pushed back forcefully against its longtime rival for their diplomatic behavior and deepened the mystery surrounding Snowden's current whereabouts by declaring that the man at the center of an international manhunt was not even in Russia.

"I would like to say right away that we have no relation to either Mr. Snowden or to his relationship with American justice or to his movements around the world," said Russia's Sergei Lavrov during a press appearance on Tuesday.

"He chose his route on his own, and we found out about it, as most here did, from mass media," he said. "He did not cross the Russian border."

On Monday, US Secretary of State John Kerry told the Russians they should "do the right thing" and hand Snowden over even as experts in international law were saying that even if Snowden was in the country, there was no evident legal basis—such as an international arrest warrant—that would compel his extradition.

Despite saying he had no idea of where he was, Lavrov was clear in his expression of Russia's response to what others termed the "bullying" behavior of the US.

"We consider the attempts to accuse Russia of violation of U.S. laws and even some sort of conspiracy, which on top of all that are accompanied by threats, as absolutely ungrounded and unacceptable," Lavrov said. "There are no legal grounds for such conduct of U.S. officials."

Following a dramatic day Monday—including a pack of international journalists scouring the Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow and some who booked a flight to Cuba rumored to contain Snowden—Tuesday's statements by the Lavrov only intensify the speculation surrounding the status of the 30-year-old former NSA contractor.

As The Guardian's Miriam Elder reported from Sheremetyevo on Monday, it is entirely possible, given that no one could confirm seeing Snowden at the airport that perhaps he was not on the plane from Hong Kong that was widely reported to be carrying him.

Snowden is believed to have landed in Moscow shortly after 5pm on Sunday. Lacking a Russian visa, and stripped of his US passport anyway, he could not leave the airport. That left the Capsule Hotel, a newly opened site in Sheremetyevo's terminal E, featuring sparse suites with room for little more than a bed. Receptionists there examined photos of Snowden and said they had never seen him.

As evening began to fall, Ecuador's ambassador to Moscow arrived. He too was seeking Snowden (the country's foreign minister later said it had received an asylum request). He did not know where to find Snowden. He was still waiting in the airport, empty of its daytime rush, at 2am on Monday. It was unclear whether he had, at that point, achieved his goal.

The Associated Press adds:

A representative of WikiLeaks has been traveling with Snowden, and the organization is believed to be assisting him in arranging asylum. The organization's founder, Julian Assange, said Monday that Snowden was only passing through Russia and had applied for asylum in Ecuador, Iceland and possibly other countries.

A high-ranking Ecuadorean official told The Associated Press that Russia and Ecuador were discussing where Snowden could go, saying the process could take days. He also said Ecuador's ambassador to Moscow had not seen or spoken to Snowden. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

Ecuador's foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, hailed Snowden on Monday as "a man attempting to bring light and transparency to facts that affect everyone's fundamental liberties."

He described the decision on whether to grant Snowden asylum as a choice between "betraying the citizens of the world or betraying certain powerful elites in a specific country."

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