Donald
Trump is expected to discuss Snowden's return when he meets with
Putin
United
States President Donald Trump is expected to pressure Russia to hand
over NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in exchange for sanctions
relief at the upcoming Trump-Putin summit; however, Russia has
emphasized that they “are not in a position” to expel
Snowden and will “respect his rights" if any such
attempt is made.
“I
have never discussed Edward Snowden with (Donald Trump's)
administration,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said to
Channel 4 reporters. “When he (Putin) was asked the question, he
said this is for Edward Snowden to decide. We respect his rights, as
an individual. That is why we were not in a position to expel him
against his will because he found himself in Russia even without a
U.S. passport, which was discontinued as he was flying from Hong
Kong.”
Snowden,
who is being prosecuted in the United States for leaking classified
documents that showed surveillance abuse by U.S. intelligence
agencies, was given political asylum in Russia after his passport was
revoked.
“Edward
Snowden is the master of his own destiny,” Lavrov said.
Trump is
meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 16 in Helsinki,
where Putin is expected to push for an end to U.S. sanctions. Trump
has said he would like better relations with Russia, perhaps as a way
of pulling them away from China, but Trump's opponents in the United
States are already applying political pressure on him for holding the
summit, in the midst of the tensest U.S.-Russian relations since the
height of the Cold War.
The fate
of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange also lay in the balance when U.S.
Vice President Mike Pence met with Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno
this week.
“The
vice president raised the issue of Mr. Assange. It was a constructive
conversation. They agreed to remain in close coordination on
potential next steps going forward,” a White House official
said in a statement.
Julian
Assange has lived in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012,
with an arrest warrant in Britain preventing him from leaving the
embassy.
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