Russian Lawmaker Tweets, Then Deletes, That Snowden Accepted Venezuela Asylum

This caused an international stir.

Alexei Pushkov, the head of the Russian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, then followed up by saying his source was an 18-hour-old report by the Russian TV news program “Vesti 24.”

Pushkov, who has played an unofficial role for the Kremlin on the Snowden affair in the past, seemed especially eager this time to put plenty of distance between himself and the whole matter.

“Contact them about this question,” he tweets in Russian, referring to “Vesti 24.”

It was not clear what “Vesti 24” report he was referring to. The Russian TV program on Monday noted, as others have, that Snowden — who has requested asylum in two dozen countries — had also appealed to Venezuela.

Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, in turn, has already offered asylum to Snowden, who apparently is holed up in the transit lounge of a Moscow airport.

By: Cheston Catalano

Cheston Catalano is a Kentucky-based journalist whose work has been featured in the Chattanooga Times Free Press and the Clarksville Leaf Chronicle. He is a long-time contributor to Liberaland.