The news comes by way of Human Rights Watch's Senior Russia Researcher Tanya Lokshina. Lokshina was one of several human rights experts invited to meet with Snowden in Moscow. Her comments were transmitted by the New York Times Moscow correspondent Ellen Barry:
From @TanyaLokshina @hrw Today, he will submit an asylum claim to Russia, plans to go to Latin America eventually.— Ellen Barry (@EllenBarryNYT) July 12, 2013
From @TanyaLokshina @hrw #Snowden says he can only have guaranteed safety to stay temporarily in Russia is with asylum, so asking for it.— Ellen Barry (@EllenBarryNYT) July 12, 2013
Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador have also offered Snowden asylum, but only Venezuela's request is a formal one. However, Snowden would have to travel to each of those countries' territories for his asylum requests to have meaning.
This is a difficult -- if not impossible -- task, given his revoked United States passport. Asylum in Russia would allow Snowden to leave the transit zone at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, where he has been stuck in geopolitical paralysis for weeks.
Russian president Vladimir Putin previously said his country would only grant asylum to Snowden if he stopped "his work aimed at damaging our American partners." Snowden appears to have relented to Putin's condition.
"No actions I take or plan are meant to harm the US," Snowden says, so Putin's condition poses no obstacle, @TanyaLokshina @hrw reports— Ellen Barry (@EllenBarryNYT) July 12, 2013
Snowden also said he has been recognized as an asylum seeker by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The UNHCR defines "asylum seeker" as "someone who says he or she is a refugee, but whose claim has not yet been definitively evaluated."
Barry also tweeted a new photo of Snowden, which is the first new image we have seen of him in weeks:
image from inside #Snowden meeting. pic.twitter.com/J7yAnXhKkl— Ellen Barry (@EllenBarryNYT) July 12, 2013