Washington – Obama To Speak With Putin By Phone, Raise Snowden Concerns

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    President Barack Obama talks with President Vladimir Putin of Russia during a phone call in the Oval Office, July 12, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)Washington – President Barack Obama planned to raise U.S. concerns directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday about Moscow’s handling of former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, who is wanted in the United States for disclosing secret surveillance programs.

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    White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama and Putin would speak by phone about Snowden later in the day, a conversation that was set up in recent days as Washington seeks to persuade Moscow to send Snowden back to the United States to face espionage charges.

    The high-level contact came amid intense diplomatic wrangling over Snowden, who has been holed up in a transit area at a Moscow airport since arriving from Hong Kong on June 23. He is seeking asylum in either Russia or in one of three countries in Latin American that have offered to take him, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia.

    Snowden, 30, is a fugitive from U.S. prosecution on charges that he took records about secret U.S. surveillance of internet and phone traffic and released them to the news media. The disclosures have raised Americans’ concerns about domestic spying and strained relations with some U.S. allies.

    Putin thus far has refused all U.S. entreaties to return Snowden to the United States.

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

    “However we are not at that point yet. They still have the opportunity to do the right thing and return Mr. Snowden to the United States and that’s what our hope is,” she told reporters.

    The White House and the State Department complained that the Russian government had permitted Snowden to meet with human rights groups at the Moscow airport.

    “Providing a propaganda platform for Mr. Snowden runs counter to the Russian government’s previous declarations of Russia’s neutrality,” Carney said.

    He said it was “also incompatible with Russian assurances that they do not want Mr. Snowden to further damage U.S. interests.”

    In Moscow, Putin’s spokesman repeated earlier conditions that Snowden should stop harming the interests of the United States if he wants asylum.


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    2 Comments
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    10 years ago

    Mr. Putin – don’t be INTIMIDATED by Obama. Keep Snowden in Russia.

    OPTIMIST
    OPTIMIST
    10 years ago

    Wonder who will be listening in………………….