edward snowden wants to remain in russia the whistleblower says he's now seeking temporary asylum and is ready to stop leaking documents the whole the u.s. the kremlin's main condition for him to stay. it's noting could be subjected to ill treatment in the us are legitimate. he says he wants refuge in russia because he fears that death penalty if washington ever catches him . live from our studio center here in moscow where it's just turned eight pm this is

with the twenty four hours a day. where we start with our breaking news story this hour n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden says he wants temporary political asylum in russia and promised to stop releasing leaks that harm washington to secure it he told russian and international human rights activists of his wishes at moscow's sheremetyevo airport today where he's been stuck in a transit area for more than two weeks with a little later we hope to cross live to our correspondent. who's been there in that transit area and she'll tell us more on what snowden had to say that i hope will be able to do very soon here in r.t. now the whistle blowing web site wiki leaks has released edward snowden statement rights groups in moscow and in it the former n.s.a. contractor for assistance in getting asylum in russia and till he can legally travel to latin america. when he underlined that his asylum status is official after venezuela provided him with refuge but that unlawful threats from the u.s.

makes it impossible for him to get there he also condemned western european states willing to act outside the law to appease the u.s. snowden stressed he was not in partnership with any foreign government or seeking to enrich himself insisted he is acting sorely out of conviction but the public should know about america's little falls buying activities. well as promised i said that we could be able to cross live to our correspondent who's been. throughout that meeting where snowden addressed. or talked indeed to the human rights groups and lawyers and he is there now. tell us more about what came all the meetings today. well of course of the meeting which snowden and carried out with their present is a human rights groups and some of russia's most prominent lawyers the whole thing losses from less than an hour and get it was one of the most newsworthy events

arguably of the entire year so far thirteen people were there of course incredible inspiration prior to the event and after the event hundreds of cameras and journalists are present at the airport once the human rights groups that representatives got there they were all surrounded by media and after the meeting some of them have spoken to the journalists and we actually managed to get a short interview with us on election are they and rights watch your representative in russia was going to us the following information. seems that snowden could be subjected to ill treatment in the u.s. are legitimate he says he feels he's living conditions refining the airport he feels safe there but he knows that he cannot stay forever snowden is intended to apply for asylum in russia and then in latin america. and of course that means no one was here at the airport for almost three weeks now

with the anticipation building ever stronger with every single day journalists and servers that are getting increasingly curious about what his next step will be of course the. only time can tell exactly what's going to happen. and now we've been hunting to literally hunting for us no don't know cameras follow and so i pods just trying to get a glimpse of him and know any way that we could. ah she was in the transfer zone but you have to understand there is that there is literally a labyrinth of halls and hallways and rooms inside the airport which is essentially three huge terminals come by and even though i spent half of the day literally inside the transfer terminal we couldn't get to the meeting with snowden because it was closed off to journalists only those whom he has invited were present there it's important to know that there have been reports according to john election up when we just heard that she was she received a call from a u.s.

official prior to the meeting who has asked her to relay to snowden that u.s. does not consider him a whistleblower an interesting fact considering the fact that the u.s. has increasingly has repeatedly asked for snowden's extradition in fact the latest that we've heard there has been information dots u.s. has asked iceland for extradition of snowden should he arrived there it was one of the countries that snowden the us has asked for political asylum out he has also he has also published a rather extensive statement on his situation praising russia along with an israel on the corrado in ecuador for their support of human rights essentially putting the siding them countries as examples of the approach to human rights and thanking them for their support he remains at this point it seems in the transfer zone of three major airports it depends on whether or not he's going to be granted the asylum slightly status in russia whether or not he will be able to move out of here and possibly wait for further paperwork from his well or any other country in the

nearest future but of course we'll be keeping a very close eye on what's happening with edward snowden at this point as it only seems to get more and more interesting with every day and so he does arena thanks very much indeed for that live update. well if he's in the same now he is following developments at the airport as well and she discussed snowden's request for asylum with a russian politician who was at that meeting. but it seems pretty clear cut at least the announcement edward snowden will apply and is going to request political asylum in the russian federation a couple of weeks ago president putin laid out conditions on which he might be welcome to stay in the country the top one being that he would have to stop doing his work that quote harms russia's u.s. partners it seems in the past two weeks he's decided that he's ready to do that although it still could be debated what exactly harming the u.s.

means he made it clear that he thinks his work is helping the u.s. he sees himself as a patriot he met in the airport in the transit zone possibly we'll find out more we have a guest for you within that meeting but he met with human rights activists duma deputy with prominent lawyers and made this announcement and. we'll hear a little bit more about what exactly you have to say but it seems clear that he's going to ask for this is tie them and now the question is how is russia going to look at this what will be the process of looking into this will he be able to get asylum will that mean that he'll continue to travel on to latin america or perhaps will he see russia as the safest place to say so far joining me to speak more about what exactly edward snowden had to say is such that he could not he is on the dumas head of the duma's education committee and you were personally invited as far as i understand to join that actually i was personally invited by snowden. and i actually asked the question you raised just

a minute ago about what his condition. and highest. order it was whether he was prepared to comply. and he said yes it's easy because one. you've. heard the united states' interests that was in the past. and if there is a scandal now it's something which has to do with journalists rather. with snowden . and second a he is not prepared to hurt the united states as a country why do you think that a couple of weeks ago he withdrew his application and now he's asking for political asylum and what is the next step then all my feeling is that a couple of weeks ago he had a real intention to leave for election america. probably he would love to do that

actually he said that his intention was to accept the silence from as many countries as they can provide but course there were legal arguments but. whether anyone can have more than one asylum in one country and he said there at this point he doesn't see any other option at all since the u.s. government will not let him leave freely to let in america will do whatever they can to prevent them from your traveling freely because no passports were and he is on the no fly list. at their request so the u.s. go. what are the chances of him getting russian citizenship well i think there are such chances of course at least that there is such a pause a bill or conditional on snowden no says that conditions are acceptable he can get it on the other hand i think he really. said as far as the requirements for

a political refugee because. i'm not an expert on the issue but human rights activists and lawyers who are there. who are at the end worry green that he was prosecuted for political reasons rather than on legal grounds because he no excuses the u.s. government or violating fourth and fifth amendments. to the u.s. constitution. and he considers himself to a person we felt. yes rather than hurts the united states and represents the majority of the american public which is supportive of peace because he said that probably those governments which provided here with political asylum. presented if of the will of the american people down the u.s. government. fifty five percent of americans consider him to be. freedom fighter

rather than the criminal taking into account. in international law. the death penalty in the united states the. will of the majority of the russian people the public opinion polls what they show put in a statement the russians are not extraditing anybody. taking into account that he came out with. snowden all came out with recognition of those conditions that he is not going to hurt the united states probably it is realistically to sue we can realistically snowden can get political asylum you could love was in fact in that meeting with edward snowden here at sheremetyevo airport thank you so much for your insights and really kind of details of what happened today i will be here throughout the evening bringing you the latest analysis on edward snowden i think he will be asking for political asylum in the russian federation president vladimir

putin's press secretary has reacted to snowden's potential asylum bid. reiterated that snowden could stay in russia if he stops all activities causing damage to russia's american partners also added that if this condition is fulfilled there should be no hindrance to him getting a refuge if the oscar for it in self well let's discuss the latest twist in the snowden saga with investigative journalist dave lindorff he joins us live now from the u.s. snowden really is pushing this now as a human rights issue could he actually face the death penalty do you think if he does get caught or returned to the u.s. . i would be dubious about the death penalty just because. well it's a shame we look as an inch and in your last story the sentiment supporting snowden is quite. a signal units are the majority of people. that

fortunately we have not only losing the picture your phrasing that but also we're losing the sound i'll just ask one more question and we'll just give it one more go . what do you think we'll let reaction though be from washington the fact that snowden has applied for freshness on him from moscow what could be the political reaction then let's give this a guy. i think that most of the damage has been done and what they really want to do in washington is to. make it really clear to other people at the n.s.a. and in other intelligence agencies what happens if you're a whistle blower and so they're probably sad but it's a fight that he was not able to get to latin america and that there are some constraints on him so i guess that. would be too irritated at him having a you know russia if he's barred from further leaks while

most politicians who are described him as a hot potato do you think there's any way the u.s. could put pressure on the kremlin to make sure that snowden returned to the u.s. and not to help safe passage to latin america. i can't imagine the u.s. having the pressure to push russia into sending him back i don't see that happening i think it would be you millie it into russia in the extreme and it wouldn't happen with what i'm actually curious to see is whether the newspapers that he's already released the files to are are going to feel bound at all to not continue releasing things that they have about the n.s.a. and i'm curious to know what russia's response to that would be. in terms of their grief but with him not to release documents i don't think he can tell the

washington post or the guardian what to do with them. they already have they thanks very much indeed for that dave lindorff live there from philadelphia. well political analyst babiche believes that snowden recognize that saddam in russia was the only option left to him. you see is that it is not a very secure america right now because just recently we had been used to that american vice president biden personally called the ecuadoran president rafael carette and basically a threaten him with consequences if he admits knowledge and hysterically so i think i made this knowledge and decided that he should take and it would be a good time off and probably stay in russia for a little longer and we've heard the term soft president putin i think these are very legitimate demands that would you know has made you know in the same demands were made for example of why obama may need when he lived in france and that he

should not get involved in particular and he should not damage the interest of. the wants of border and you should not damage i called the interest of our american partners so if snowden agrees you will be doomed. darl live in russia but probably it will be about before his security will to further discuss snowden's plates we're joined live now but in dun t.'s editor of politics dot co dot u.k. he's there in london does this surprise you this move that snowden is made to seek impressed on him in moscow i. know it seems very sensible he's in a somewhat difficult position of course that there are all these offers of asylum in knots in america however for him to get he's already seen the difficulty for instance that your own morality last week or trying to fly over european airspace and there are those concerns and so it seems like the safest thing for him to do at

the moment is to stay for a little bit longer with this transit asylum in russia and then see where he can go from there but if he does get all these paperwork sorted and gets a valid visa passport he can go to venezuela or whatever. even then it's going to be very difficult for him to go just how will he do it. yeah there is actually it's strange but there is actually a little turn into which is that there are officials from say venezuela or ecuador go to russia to give them all the papers and it's not entirely clear that europe would be entirely sympathetic towards that if the plane was forced down we're already seeing a pretty key area of international law here it's quite. open to interpretation and he may feel that even having those papers with him having the officials with him from the country that's granting asylum may not be enough to get him over there in one case but it seems all it is an equal here legally from hong kong why can't they just push him illegally as it were to a country that says they will have and. it's

a difficult position i mean russia is an especially difficult position there's a phrase in rugby called a hospital pass when someone passes you to just as the enormous car is running towards you and about to take you down and really that's kind of what russia was given it was presented with a problem that they have absolutely no. and then bringing its relationship with america into extreme tension just at the same time as it is having these problems over syria which is of course a far more serious issue than the one that's going on with snowden. and russia of course sort of want to navigate his way around it putin's inmate is you know he can't do anything the damages the interest of our american allies of course that's that's rather slippery because snowden himself would say what i'm not and if i didn't say today i'm not damaging the interests of the american state i'm in fact supporting it this is of course the rallying cry of rebels that over time that they are the ultimate stand up to bad loans it's also quite difficult to see how putin would demonstrate i mean the files have already been handed to the guardian the

media in britain already have these photos they can release them without any cooperation from snowden himself so a very tricky diplomatic and legal minefield and just briefly putin could say this is a human rights issue because he could well face the death penalty in the u.s. do you think that really is likely that. no i don't think that's likely a tool however it merely has to be a possibility for the asylum claim to have delayed it secondly if it was to point to the way the other whistleblowers have been treated by the american government you would see pretty clear cut cases of no touch torture you know people wait can people wait for standing on their feet for days at a time. the americans have not done anything to help themselves and their cases when they tried to get these people rise out of the way that they have treated for instance people like bradley manning back really good to talk to in this in thanks very much for your perspective in editor of politics. thank you very much indeed

when one using the latest updates on egypt in just a minute this is live in moscow. this journey is not about seeing the world. it's a mission that i could to myself a project born succeed if i stay in the same place all the time. i've been travelling around the world for twenty days so far in all the time i haven't spent any money at all the main idea of the project because of the artist paints people's portraits and return to some periods. we have to get used to each other i think is a little disappointed about the bus a failure because we're still spending a lot of money i mean if i spend it he shouldn't worry about that right now i don't think so goes a great artist but i don't think he's a con man if you don't like the painting you just don't give anything.

to the. science technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've got the future covered. news continues here on r.t. egypt is braced for war rival demonstrations with the muslim brotherhood vowing to reverse the el sting of president morsi and the army willing to let them the protests come amid a crackdown on the islam is movement which has led to bloodshed and arrests but as always bill true reports egypt could once again be owned by the military if no alternative is found. this is the moment that egypt found out that the muslim

brotherhood president mohamed morsy had been our cities. square erupted in the chant of the army and the people of one hand chief of the armed forces defense minister sisi became the hero of the moment however after clashes between morsy supporters and the army left over fifty people dead just days after a new interim president had been sworn in some began to fear the army would wrestle power from civilians and ruled with a heavy hand why is the army in disguise making a hard stand interfering in politics but they're not really helping civilians on the ground and then you see something like the massacre by the presidential guard club and what happened even if it was a muslim brotherhood was started this at the end of the day there is a human rights violation which is massive and severe because if you are going to shoot people who are trying to get into a building of that importance you don't actually shoot to kill a chips in n.g.o.s maintaining the military had a terrible human rights record during their last period of rule after the ouster of

hosni mubarak they were involved in killing protesters that was the accountability for any of the military crimes they torture protesters there rested they also tried to restrict freedom of expression and most of all they really monopolize this isn't making power i mean they wrote the road up at the time the military for their part promised in a number of televised press conferences that they were not interested in politics or really. anstead assisting the country's movement towards a civilian democracy. hockney gyptian armed forces have issued more than one statement saying we want a real democracy in the country. the new president doesn't have enough experience with the political situation in egypt so the military is merely supporting him in that way the muslim brotherhood attacked the military which was defending itself its offices and the institution. as the chance of those on the place where behind me indicates people turn to the army in moments of on rest the military is the real

power base here in egypt every one of the country's president has hailed from the armed forces except for mohamed morsi was ousted after just one year in office but apart from minute tree money and political clout they also have significant economic interests owning several business monopolies and factories as one of the only functioning state institutions at the moment and with little civilian alternative to morsi and his missing brotherhood many people fear that the army whether it wants to or not will once again run the country. r.t. . next week u.s. lawmakers are set to hold a vote which could put the one point three billion dollars military aid package that washington sends to karo at risk if events in egypt are officially labeled a coup the support would have to stop the republican representative is trying to use wordplay to make it more flexible times correspondent pepe escobar says that egypt will be severely concerned about losing any financial help. basic the

absolute egypt cannot feed itself they have annual deficit of over twenty billion dollars before that we had the emir of qatar writing the checks now we're going to have saudi arabia and the emirates right checked if they need any of course they do from the i.m.f. is going to be about the three or four billion max which they had negotiated for almost thirty years but it's not a not so interesting it's going to explode all over again in three four five six months the muslim brotherhood was they will be able to come out this new go when it's going to be a liberal as well you have to you know completely reorganize their gyptian system upside down it's impossible because they cannot feed themselves they cannot earn money from any sink they don't produce any sing that the rest of the world

wants to buy except sally their dearest assets then go to his stool back egypt specially now after the there is not a cool according to obama it is said that in. divisions between islamists in syria and the rest of the opposition of reached a critical level a key free syrian army commander has been killed by al qaeda linked militants and the group responsible also threatened all commanders of western backed forces the situation in the war torn countries for some nations to rethink supplying the rebels with weapons even the u.s. has put the plan on hold and so on they will end up in the wrong hands the free syrian army has been trying to distance itself from radical groups fueling dissent within the anti assad opposition the political right to join white police and even though the groups hence there is little difference between them. social position as a whole legal bunch of groups most of them how keda affiliates we know that those

that are in forty thousand foreign jihadists in the country who are in pain and coming syria into a killing field the out of the entire region so this is no longer about trying to support forces who are looking to stylishly democracy form cool in-city auth is trying to resist. when you're not cutting with their chests of dead syrian soldiers and removing the hops and lungs of the head and catholic priests or killers playing fourteen old boys for the crap anymore plus the media lives well on the ground obviously there's been a struggle between the jihad this who are increasing their wheat under importance in the conflict and foresee such as if they see who is who are homegrown rebel forces but it seems that we still fronts the i mean you have this economy and the country is increasingly go up to the detriment of the as they see it but that's not for gas quality it was an airbase ecomog with eco open a chest of states that even soldiers a couple of months ago

a city so the idea that there's a lot of our opposition in syria is increasingly untenable. now for some international news in the brief at least eight people have been killed in a train crash near france's capital a train was moving at high speed when it reached the station and then rammed into a crowded platform parts of the train had flipped over and some passengers remain trapped inside rescue teams are at the scene and searching through the wreckage. live pictures now from london's heathrow airport where appalled plane is on fire and firefighters are trying to put it out both runways have been shut down as a precaution with the rivals and departures suspended according to heathrow stuff there were no passengers on board. are back with more news with the news team in half an hour from now in the meantime stay with all of us for a documentary called cashless journey that's coming up after the break.

many in latin america are furious with the forced grounding of bolivia's president evo morales is playing in austria and even twelve nations in latin america are coming together to discuss the consequences of the event the plane was forced to the ground while flying over the e.u. because it was believed that no dinner was hiding on board trying to get to asylum in bolivia and beyond some might say that this is no big deal so president of some contras since he had a delayed flight for a few hours they happen man plus you've got to get that still guy at all costs right well one man's delayed flight is another man's imperial skyjacking you see the countries of latin america have a common history as being on the bad end of brutal western european imperialism and when the president of a former colony could just be abducted at the will of the you would have his plane search it sure makes you feel like you're still under the last shot.