Has Snowden agreed to Venezuela?

US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, who has been holed up in a Moscow airport for more than two weeks now, has agreed to an offer of political asylum from Venezuela, a top pro-Kremlin lawmaker said on Tuesday. Alexei Pushkov, head of the Russian lower house of parliament’s international affairs committee, posted this message on Twitter. “As was expected, Snowden agreed to (Venezuelan President Nicolas) Maduro’s offer of political asylum.” but deleted it minutes after the announcement. Pushkov’s announcement came after the leftist governments of Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua had over the past few days offered the 30-year-old former National Security Agency contractor asylum. But it remains unclear how the world’s most famous refugee would be able to leave the transit zone of Sheremetyevo, where he has been marooned without valid documents since he arrived from Hong Kong on June 23. There are no direct flights between Moscow and Caracas. The quickest way to get to Venezuela would be to fly via Havana. A spokeswoman for Russian national carrier Aeroflot, Irina Danenberg, said she was not aware if Snowden had been on the flight to Havana that left Moscow earlier. “I have no clue,” she said. There are no direct flights to Havana from Moscow on Wednesday.

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