Snowden Applies for Asylum in Russia as Tension Rises between EU, U.S. after Spying Report

U.S. leaker Edward Snowden has applied for asylum in Russia and President Vladimir Putin said on Monday he was welcome to stay as long as he stopped leaking U.S. intelligence reports.

On Sunday night, Snowden applied for political asylum at the consulate office of the Sheremetyevo airport, where he had been staying for more than a week in legal limbo, a foreign ministry official told Agence France Presse.

"At 10.30 pm (1830 GMT) yesterday, British citizen Sarah Harrison turned up at the consulate department at Sheremetyevo airport and submitted a request from Snowden about granting him asylum," consulate officer Kim Shevchenko told AFP.

Sarah Harrison is an employee of anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, who accompanied Snowden on his June 23 trip from Hong Kong, where the former NSA contractor leaked details of the U.S. surveillance program after leaving his job in Hawaii.

Putin appeared to respond to Snowden's request Monday by saying at a news conference that Snowden, who is wanted in the United States on charges of espionage, must stop leaking information damaging Washington if he wants to stay in Russia.

"Russia never hands over anybody anywhere and has no intention to do so," Putin said when grilled by reporters about the fate of the leaker believed to be holed up in the airport's transit zone since his arrival from Hong Kong on June 23.

"If he (Snowden) wants to remain here there is one condition -- he should stop his work aimed at inflicting damage on our American partners no matter how strange this may sound coming from me," Putin said.

But Putin, whose comments came before the announcement by the consular officer that Snowden had applied for asylum, himself appeared to indicate that was an unlikely scenario.

"Because he feels like a rights activist and defender of human rights all indications are that he is not going to stop this work. So he has to choose a country of residence for himself and move there."

The Russian president reiterated Snowden was not a Moscow agent and was not working with Russian special services.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday confirmed that there were high-level consultations between Moscow and Washington over Snowden's fate.

"We have gone through regular, law enforcement channels in enforcing the extradition request that we have made with respect to Mr Snowden," he said while on his African visit.

"Mr Snowden, we understand, has traveled there without a valid passport, without legal papers. We are hopeful that the Russian government makes decisions based on the normal procedures regarding international travel."

Putin had previously refused to immediately hand over Snowden to Washington due to the absence of an extradition treaty between the two countries.

The head of Russia's Security Council Nikolai Patrushev earlier Monday said that Putin and Obama had ordered the chiefs of their respective security agencies, the FSB and FBI, to find a way out of the diplomatic deadlock.

"Of course, (Putin and Obama) don't have a solution now that would work for both sides, so they have ordered the FSB director (Alexander) Bortnikov and FBI director Robert Mueller to keep in constant contact and find solutions," Patrushev told television channel Rossiya 24.

"I have to point out however that the task ahead of them is not easy, because they have to find a solution within the framework of international legal norms, and today one cannot say that such norms exist, and that there is a ready solution," Patrushev added.

Putin also hinted Monday Snowden might be swapped for another figure, saying that the only instance Moscow has given out people to other countries was "when we exchanged our intelligence officers for those people who were detained, arrested, and convicted in the Russian Federation."

Putin had last month reportedly sent a letter to Obama ahead of the G8 summit in Ireland, in which he listed a series of problems in ties with Washington.

The letter mentioned Russians Viktor Bout and Konstantin Yaroshenko, convicted and jailed in the United States, reported Kommersant broadsheet.

The two convicted Russian citizens could both be bargaining chips in the current negotiations between Washington and Moscow over Snowden, said Dmitry Trenin, the head of Moscow Carnegie Center think tank.

"If I was handling the negotiations, I would propose an exchange for Bout and Yaroshenko," he told AFP. "Another option is signing an agreement about mutual extradition, something the Americans don't want."

Snowden arrived in Moscow from Hong Kong on June 23 for a layover on his way to Latin America, possibly Ecuador, in a bid to escape extradition to the United States.

However, Ecuador President Rafael Correa said on Sunday that "the solution of Snowden's destination" was in the hands of Russian authorities.

Meanwhile the spying allegations caused tension between the United States and Europe.

Obama on Monday said he would fully inform European allies angry over allegations Washington had bugged their offices, once he had all the facts.

"When we have an answer, we will make sure to provide all the information that our allies want," Obama said at a press conference in Tanzania.

The European Union, Paris and Berlin have demanded answers from Washington, following the latest spying claims attributed to fugitive leaker Edward Snowden.

The report in German weekly Der Spiegel detailed covert surveillance by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) on EU diplomatic missions.

Obama said the United States will "take a look at this article and figure out what they may or not be talking about. What we will do is communicate with our allies appropriately."

Whilst stopping short of acknowledging any spying by the U.S., he suggested all parties systematically snoop on either other.

"In European capitals there are people who are interested, if not in what I had for breakfast, at least what my talking points would be if I am talking to their leaders," Obama said.

But he also underlined his close relations with European allies, adding that "if I want to know what Chancellor Merkel is thinking, I will call Chancellor (Angela) Merkel", and in the same manner, with French President Francois Hollande.

Hollande warned earlier in the day that allegations of Washington spying on its allies were threatening talks on a crucial free trade pact, despite U.S. efforts to downplay the growing espionage scandal.

European sources said anger over the alleged bugging of EU offices was genuine and warned the scandal could escalate into a "serious" political crisis, just as Washington and the EU are set to begin sensitive talks next week on the biggest free trade deal ever negotiated.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's insistence that information-gathering was "not unusual" did little to stem increasing European fury, with Hollande demanding Washington immediately put an end to spying on EU diplomatic missions.

In the first direct response by a European head of the state to the scandal, Hollande said Paris had demanded answers from Washington about reports that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) bugged European offices and embassies.

"We cannot accept this kind of behavior between partners and allies," Hollande told journalists during a visit to the western city of Lorient.

"We ask that this immediately stop," Hollande said. "There can be no negotiations or transactions in all areas until we have obtained these guarantees, for France but also for all of the European Union."

His comments came after Kerry told reporters at a security forum in Brunei that he was looking into the allegations, but also suggested the spying was business as usual.

"I will say that every country in the world that is engaged in international affairs, of national security, undertakes lots of activities to protect its national security and all kinds of information contributes to that," Kerry said.

"All I know is that is not unusual for lots of nations. But beyond that, I'm not going to comment any further until I have all of the facts and find out precisely what the situation is."

Travelling with President Barack Obama on a tour of Africa, U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes declined to comment directly on the spying allegations but said relations with Europe would remain strong.

"We cooperate with Europe on so many issues, we are so closely aligned in terms of our interests in the world that those relationships are going to stay strong," Rhodes said aboard Air Force One.

"We are going to cooperate with them on security issues, on economic issues and frankly we obviously also share a set of democratic values with them that I think can transcend any controversy."

In fresh revelations attributed to fugitive leaker Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor now holed up at Moscow airport, Monday's Guardian newspaper said France, Italy and Greece were among 38 "targets" of spying operations by U.S. intelligence services.

This came after a report in German weekly Der Spiegel detailed alleged covert surveillance by the NSA on EU diplomatic missions.

One document, dated September 2010 and classed as "strictly confidential", described how the NSA kept tabs on the EU's mission in Washington, Der Spiegel reported.

Microphones were allegedly installed in the building and the computer network was infiltrated, giving the agency access to emails and internal documents.

Der Spiegel said the EU delegation at the United Nations was subject to similar surveillance and the spying had also extended to the 28-member bloc's Brussels headquarters.

German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said Berlin had conveyed its "astonishment" and "great displeasure" to the White House about the allegations.

"Europe and the United States are partners, are friends, are allies. Trust must be the basis of our cooperation and trust must be restored in this area," he told reporters. "This is not the Cold War anymore."

European Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said the trade talks could be in jeopardy, saying the EU cannot negotiate "if there is any doubt that our partners are bugging the offices of European negotiators".

In light of the allegations, European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso's office said he had ordered a full security sweep of all its premises worldwide.

A European Union source said officials could not simply brush the allegations aside.

"If it's true that the Americans have been spying on their allies, then there will be a political fallout," the source told Agence France Presse, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"This goes far beyond the requirements of national security. It is a breach of trust and we are at the beginning of something very serious."

The German and French foreign ministries said the U.S. ambassadors to their countries had been invited to discuss the issue, though neither capital officially summoned the envoys -- a formal diplomatic move when tensions develop between governments.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was also to hold a telephone conversation with Kerry on the issue later Monday, officials said.