Former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden's father arrived in Moscow today to see his son, who was granted asylum in Russia after he leaked details of US government surveillance programmes.
Speaking at the same Moscow airport where his fugitive son was stranded for weeks this summer, Lon Snowden said he had no direct contact with Edward, but said he felt "extreme gratitude that my son is safe and secure and he's free".
Mr Snowden jnr (30), is wanted in the US on espionage charges. Russia's decision to grant him temporary asylum aggravated already tense relations between Moscow and Washington.
Russian authorities and the Russian lawyer who is assisting Mr Snowden, Anatoly Kucherena, have not disclosed his location.
“I am not sure my son will be returning to the US again. That’s his decision, he is an adult, he is a person who is responsible for his own agency,” Mr Snowden snr said, standing beside Mr Kucherena at Sheremetyevo airport.
“I am his father, I love my son, and I certainly hope I will have an opportunity to see my son,” he said.
Edward Snowden was the source of disclosures about US government surveillance that included details about a program that collected e-mails, chat logs and other types of data from companies such as Google Inc and Facebook Inc.
“I really have no idea what his intentions are,” Mr Snowden snr said, citing his lack of direct contact with his son.
But he said he believed his son had not been involved in the publication of any information since he arrived in Russia and was “simply trying to remain healthy and safe”.
He and Mr Kucherena then drove from the airport to a state television studio to give an exclusive live interview, indicating the visit was under government control.
Mr Kucherena, who said he last saw Edward Snowden yesterday, expressed hope the former intelligence contractor would soon find a job in Russia - possibly in IT or the human rights sector - because he has largely run out of his savings and was living modestly, mainly on donations.
He also said the fugitive American lived under security in Russia and was avoiding publicity because of the US chase after him.
Mr Snowden, who worked as a systems administrator at a US National Security Agency facility in Hawaii, fled to Hong Kong in June and then flew to Moscow. The US annulled his passport and urged nations in Latin America and elsewhere not to take him in or help him find refuge from US prosecution.
President Vladimir Putin rejected repeated American pleas to hand Mr Snowden over to the US, but has denied Russia had any role in Mr Snowden's disclosures or that its intelligence agencies were working with him in any way.
Mr Putin has used Mr Snowden’s case to accuse the US of preaching to the world about rights and freedoms it does not uphold at home.
After Mr Snowden was granted asylum, on August 1st, US President Barack Obama pulled out of a summit with Mr Putin that had been scheduled for early September in Moscow, but then met Putin at a G20 summit in St Petersburg.
Edward Snowden is in the running for the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought, a European human rights award whose past winners include Nelson Mandela and Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Reuters