Edward Snowden: fleeing a furious White House

On the run for leaking details of America's snooping operations around the world, has Edward Snowden betrayed his people or liberated them?

So where on earth is Edward Snowden? Having left Hong Kong supposedly bound for Russia, the man responsible for "the biggest intelligence breach in recent US history" failed to make an expected connecting flight to Cuba, let alone get to Ecuador, where he has requested political asylum. The Huffington Post reported that he was last seen "wandering aimlessly round the duty-free section" of Moscow airport. President Vladimir Putin confirmed that the whistleblower is indeed in Moscow and refused a request by the US to expel him.

Snowden's perambulations have "set off a diplomatic game of cat and mouse", with the Obama administration scrambling to find a way of repatriating him to face espionage charges, says the FT. US-China relations have been put at risk: the White House issued "a blistering criticism" of Beijing for letting him leave Hong Kong. Now his continued presence in Moscow threatens to exacerbate the incipient Cold War developing between the two countries. No one in Washington believes Putin's claim that Snowden hasn't been interviewed by Russian security services.

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