USA infuriated over Russia's reluctance to arrest Snowden

Edward Snowden's stay in one of Moscow airports pushed the U.S. government to making a number of high-profile statements. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned Russia and China on "consequences" in connection with the case of the former employee of the CIA. The secretary said that Snowden "betrayed his country."

Former CIA officer Edward Snowden, who informed the media about the espionage of U.S. intelligence services on Internet users, arrived in the Russian capital from Hong Kong. On June 24^th, it was reported that Snowden registered, but did not board a flight that department from Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport this afternoon. There were dozens of journalists on board that plane. According to them, they could not find the elusive man either in the aircraft.

As soon as it became known that Snowden had left Hong Kong, the U.S. authorities immediately demanded his extradition. Spokeswoman for the National Security Council, Caitlin Hayden, said that the White House would like the Russian government "consider all possible options" of his extradition.

Meanwhile, a source in Russian security services commented the situation to ITAR-TASS. According to the source, Russia has no reason to arrest Edward Snowden.

"Snowden is not on the international wanted list, which could be a reason for his detention. He did not do anything illegal on the territory of the Russian Federation either," the source said.

According to editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs journal, Fyodor Lukyanov, Russia "is not very interested in having Snowden staying in the country, thereby creating a constant thorn in US-Russian relations." At the same time, the expert said, Russia shows in this situation in that the "relations with the U.S. can hardly be characterized as partnership. "On some issues, we are ready to cooperate, but actually we have different ideas and different interests," he said.

If Snowden leaves Russia, the damage to the relations between the Russian Federation and the United States will be insignificant and will quickly come to naught. "If he stays, the cooperation between intelligence services that has recently become more active over the problems in Dagestan and the Olympics in Sochi, may come to a standstill this is a matter of principle for the Americans," Lukyanov told Pravda.Ru.

Anton Kulikov

Pravda.Ru