Snowden evidently lived at the Russian consulate while in Hong Kong. If this is accurate, it lends more validity to the notion that he’s being manipulated or controlled by Russia and Wikileaks. It certainly vindicates accusations that he defected.
MOSCOW — Before American fugitive Edward Snowden arrived in Moscow in June — an arrival that Russian officials have said caught them by surprise — he spent several days living at the Russian Consulate in Hong Kong, a Moscow newspaper reported Monday.
The article in Kommersant, based on accounts from several unnamed sources, did not state clearly when Snowden decided to seek Russian help in leaving Hong Kong, where he was in hiding in order to evade arrest by U.S. authorities on charges that he leaked top-secret documents about U.S. surveillance programs.
A man runs up the ‘gostra’, a pole covered in grease, during the religious feast of St Julian, patron of the town of St Julian’s, outside Valletta August 25, 2013. In the traditional ‘gostra’, a game stretching back to the Middle Ages, young men, women and children have to make their way to the top and try to uproot one of the flags to win prizes. From May to September in Malta, there is hardly any weekend when a town or a village is not celebrating the feast of its patron saint or other saints revered in different churches.
The disclosure of the documents brought worldwide scrutiny of U.S. spying efforts and triggered a vigorous debate in Congress over whether and under what circumstances the government should gather data on phone calls and e-mails.
Snowden arrived in Moscow on June 23 and spent more than a month stranded at Sheremetyevo International Airport, with his U.S. passport revoked and Washington urging other countries not to accept him.