See bottom of entry for updates
It appears that this news may have been posted prematurely, perhaps after a mistake made by a Russia MP.
The initial report that Snowden had accepted asylum in Venezuela came from parliamentarian Alexy Pushkov’s official Twitter account. That Tweet was quickly deleted, and several Russia officials expressed confusion over the incident. Russia Today, however, posted this screen-capture of the original Tweet:
Russian officials, however, appear to have been blindsided by Pushkov’s announcement.
Asked Putin’s spokesman about Snowden–>Venezuela: “I have never heard anything about that.” Welcome back to confusion land.
— Miriam Elder (@MiriamElder) July 9, 2013
Pushkov then tweeted that he heard the story on Vesti 24, a national and international news channel. Apparently, however, he may have just misheard the news:
This report? Working off the (widely reported) statement by Maduro that he’d received Snowden’s asylum request http://t.co/GmHJUX74Xx
— Miriam Elder (@MiriamElder) July 9, 2013
We’re following this story and will update this post if new information comes in.
UPDATES
RT is now reporting that Venezuela has received Snowden’s application for Asylum:
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has confirmed that his country received an official request for asylum from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden on Monday. This comes after Nicaragua received his asylum application at its Moscow embassy.
“We received a letter requesting asylum” from Snowden, revealed Maduro, during a press conference prior to a meeting with Panama’s president, Ricardo Martinelli.
The fugitive “will need to decide when he will fly here,” added the Venezuelan head of state.
The initial headlines, that Snowden has accepted asylum, is perhaps misleading as he does not appear to have made a decision to actually go there. Venezuela has received the application, however, and joins several other possible candidates for an eventual permanent asylum. It’s still not clear what country Snowden will choose and whether Snowden can successfully make it to another country without being detained.