Edward Snowden the NSA whistleblower, is to remain in limbo at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport a while longer after the Russian Federal Migration Service failed to process his documents on time, suggesting that Mr Snowden’s entry to Russia may be more difficult than expected.
Mr Snowden’s Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena said the whistleblower’s entry into Russia was delayed only because of the complexity of Mr Snowden’s asylum request. “He has not been refused [entry],” Mr Kucherena said.
“The current situation is not standard for Russia. We have come to the conclusion that we’ll wait a while longer. We hope that the issue will be decided in the coming days,” he said.
According to its website, the migration office takes up to one week to decide whether it will allow a foreign asylum-seeker to enter Russian territory. After that, the service takes up to three months to decide whether it will actually grant the individual asylum.
http://lekanbabarinde..com/2013/07/lawyer-optimistic-about-edward-snowdens.html