Snowden seeks asylum in Russia

Former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden has applied for political asylum in Russia, a Russian official said on Monday, but President Vladimir Putin said he was not welcome unless he stopped harming US interests “as strange as that sounds coming from my lips”.

Wikileaks activist Sarah Harrison, who is travelling with Snowden, handed his application to a Russian consular official in the transit area at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport late on Sunday, Kim Shevchenko, a consul at the airport, told Reuters.