NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden will have to stay at a Moscow airport for a little longer as his asylum plea is still being reviewed by Russian immigration authorities, according to his lawyer.

Anatoly Kucherena said that the NSA-leaker plans to settle down in Russia. But for now, Snowden still cannot leave Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport.

As they met today, the lawyer handed Snowden the certificate proving that Russia’s Federal Migration Service is now reviewing his political asylum request.

Kucherena, who arrived at the airport at about 4pm Moscow time (12:00 GMT), had a large paper bag with him. Speculation immediately arose that he was carrying a document that would allow Snowden out of the transit zone.

“The certificate is not a document, political asylum request maybe reviewed within three months,” the lawyer dispelled the rumor.

Kucherena did not give any specific date when documents should be issued. Asked about reasons for that, he explained that the delay in issuing all necessary documents to Snowden is due to the uniqueness of the situation.

When exclusively talking to RT, Kucherena revealed that he brought him books – by Anton Chekhov, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Nikolay Karamzin - and some shirts.

“He has been wearing the same clothes for about a month, so I brought some clothes for him," Kucherena said.



As he arrived at the airport, the lawyer went straight to meet the whistleblower in the transit zone without taking time to speak to the journalists, saying he would do so only after consulting with his client.

Talking to RT, Kucherena stressed that Snowden’s safety is now “top priority”.

He said Snowden is thankful for words of support and goods he is getting from Russian people. The whistleblower asked to says special thanks to girls who have been worrying about his fate.

“When I told him that girls call him, he laughed and asked to give them his personal thanks for caring about him,” Kucherena said.

Snowden will meet the press as soon as the situation clears up, he added.

The lawyer said Snowden’s plans for the future include finding a job, “travel if possible and settling his life somehow.”

“He’s planning to arrange his life here. He plans to get a job. And I think that all his further decisions will be made considering the situation he found himself in,” he told RT.

Edward Snowden, who has been living in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo Airport since the day he arrived from Hong Kong on June 23, applied for temporary asylum in Russia last week.

His request followed weeks of searching for a way to leave the country, which he had intended to pass through only briefly on his way to another destination. However, he became stranded because the US revoked his passport.

It took Russian immigration authorities a week for an initial assessment of the asylum request. Apparently they decided to proceed with the request and issued Snowden provisional documents to that effect.

Earlier, Kucherena said Snowden may decide to become a permanent resident in Russia rather than stay there seeking an opportunity to get asylum elsewhere. It can take up to three months to either grant or reject the asylum request. If granted, temporary asylum would allow Snowden to remain in Russia for one year and be renewed annually. If the request is rejected by the Migration Service, Snowden may appeal the decision in court.

Snowden is wanted in the US over leaking classified documents detailing the massive surveillance programs of the National Security Agency. He is facing espionage charges if handed over to US custody. The US has been applying diplomatic pressure to countries which voiced their intention to harbor the fugitive.

Source: http://rt.com/news/snowden-entry-airport-asylum-521/

The Voice of Russia and other Russian sources are reporting that a 300 million year old piece of aluminum machinery has been found in Vladivostok. Experts say a gear rail appears to be manufactured and not the result of natural forces.

According to Yulia Zamanskaya, when a resident of Vladivostok was lighting the fire during a cold winter evening, he found a rail-shaped metal detail which was pressed in one of the pieces of coal that the man used to heat his home. Mesmerized by his discovery, the responsible citizen decided to seek help from the scientists of Primorye region. After the metal object was studied by the leading experts the man was shocked to learn about the assumed age of his discovery. The metal detail was supposedly 300 million years old and yet the scientists suggest that it was not created by nature but was rather manufactured by someone. The question of who might have made an aluminum gear in the dawn of time remains unanswered.

The find was very much like a toothed metal rail, created artificially. It was like parts are often used in microscopes, various technical and electronic devices says writer Natalia Ostrowski at KP UA Daily.

Nowadays, finding a strange artifact in coal is a relatively frequent occurrence. The first discovery of this sort was made in 1851 when the workers in one of the Massachusetts mines extracted a zinc silver-incrusted vase from a block of unmined coal which dated all the way back to the Cambrian era which was approximately 500 million years ago. Sixty one years later, American scientists from Oklahoma discovered an iron pot which was pressed into a piece of coal aged 312 million years old. Then, in 1974, an aluminum assembly part of unknown origin was found in a sandstone quarry in Romania. Reminiscent of a hammer or a support leg of a spacecraft “Apollo”, the piece dated back to the Jurassic era and could not have been manufactured by a human. All of these discoveries not only puzzled the experts but also undermined the most fundamental doctrines of modern science.

The metal detail which was recently found by Vladivostok resident is yet another discovery which perplexed the scientists. The coal in which the metal object was pressed was delivered to Primorye from Chernogorodskiy mines of Khakasia region. Knowing that the coal deposits of this region date 300 million years back, Russian experts inferred that the metal detail found in these deposits must be an age-mate of the coal.

Another question that interests Russian scientists is whether the aluminum alloy is of Earthly origin. It is known from the study of meteorites that there exists extra-terrestrial aluminum-26 which subsequently breaks down to magnesium-26. The presence of 2 percent of magnesium in the alloy might well point to the alien origin of the aluminum detail. It could also be evidence of some past, unknown civilization on Earth. Nonetheless, further testing is needed to confirm this hypothesis.

It is the first such finding in coal made in Russia, according to anomaly researcher and biologist Valery Brier, who took microscopic samples of the aluminum for testing. Valery Brier performed X-ray diffraction analysis of the metal. It showed very pure aluminum with microimpurities of magnesium of only 2 - 4 percent. Analysis was also conducted by Senior Fellow of the St. Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics Igor Okunev who confirmed the age of the material according to Natalia Ostrovsky


The find is very much like a toothed metal rail, created artificially. It was like parts that are often used in microscopes, as well as various technical and electronic devices.

While exploring core samples (rock samples) that were raised from a 9-meter depth during the drilling of the seabed to support the bridge on a Russian island near Cape Nazimova, strange metal alloys were discovered that were "preserved" in the prehistoric sandstone (age - 240 million years old). The pieces of special alloys had an unusual composition and were clearly not used in the drilling machinery. The alloys, said Brier, were artificial and constructed by intelligent beings.

Source: http://www.altering-perspectives.com/2013/07/300-million-year-old-machinery-found-in.html

Cyprus, Hong Kong, the Cook Islands, Switzerland, Latvia, and other 'offshores' is where over $45.5 billion of Russian wealth ended up in the first half of 2013, according to new figures from the Russian Central Bank.

The figure is up more than a third year-on-year, which last year reached 1 trillion roubles, Izvestia reports.

From 1994 to 2012, there was over $343.2 billion in similar suspicious transactions out of Russia, which are seen as a violation of tax laws.

“Regardless of the route and the technology of money withdrawal, especially in terms of a liberalized capital account, it reflects the deficit investment opportunities inside the country, that is, a complicated investment climate,” Alfa Bank analyst Dmitry Dolgin said, Izvestia reported.

The Central Bank of Russia has previously revealed billions in ‘dubious dollars’, or money used in ‘shadow firms’ to avoid taxes and secure more optimal transfer pricing.

Some of these shadow firms are set up and shut down within 24 hours, and in the interim, billions of dollars are expedited through a clandestine channel, or back hole of wealth.

Countries, or tax havens, can provide opportunities for investors by lowering their corporate tax rates as well as income tax rates, to make their own business climate more attractive in an ever competitive investment environment.

Cyprus was one of the most popular destinations for Russian money, estimated at $30 billion by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich.

“Cyprus was convenient as a warm and friendly island not far away from Russia, easy to reach, jurisdiction is good, and taxes are low. Banks are quite good and convenient to operate with money, to proceed with transactions across the world, to transfer money, to pay for services. And the rules of the game were known to everyone. Not just for Russians, but many British and Americans were using Cyprus as well. But again for Russians it was a close and convenient jurisdiction,” Dvorkovich told RT in an on-air interview.

Now, Russian capital is flowing elsewhere.

“Capital has shifted to other areas. In particular, Latvia has replaced Cyprus regarding withdrawal of capital from Russia,” BKF analytical department head Maxim Osadchiy told Izvestia.

“Also, due to the pressure exerted by the U.S. tax authorities on classic offshore areas of Europe, such as Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein, Russian dirty money has started to flow into the opaque Asian offshore areas, such as in Singapore and Hong Kong,” said Osadchiy.

Even banks in Dagestan are cashing in on the market of ‘dirty Russian dollars', according to Osadchiy.

There have also been several cases filed in the Ural and Caucasus regions, regional prosecutor Alexander Buksman said at the International Banking Congress in June.

The Central Bank is going to closely scrutinize its neighbors Belarus and Kazakhstan, which between them, according to the bank, helped smuggle $25 billion in fictitious import schemes.

The Central Bank has proposed creating a customs union between the three countries which would deal with case-specific compliance money laundering issues.

There is also an idea, supported by the Federal Tax Service and the Interior Ministry to create a universal ‘black list’ which will include companies and individuals which have been involved in illegal financial transactions, and will be an open database which all commercial banks can access.

According to Central Bank data, the turnover of funds from Russian banks to legal non-resident entities in the first 5 months of 2013 has reached about $241.3 billion, of which nearly $60.9 billion was on loans for non-residents.

The Central Bank has identified a network of companies they believe to be involved in the illicit money web which is costing the country 760 billion roubles in lost tax revenue.

Most recently, the Central Bank revoked the license of Makhachkala City Municipal Bank for a violation of money laundering.

Russia has a 13 percent income tax rate.

Russia has a corporate tax rate of 20%, compared to the US, which has 40%, and Germany, at 30%

Source: http://rt.com/business/russia-suspicious-transactions-45-836/

Former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden broke his silence on Monday for the first time since fleeing to Moscow over a week ago, blasting the Obama administration and saying he remained free to make new disclosures about U.S. spying activity.

Snowden, who faces espionage charges in the United States and is believed to be staying in a transit area at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, surfaced with a letter to the Ecuadorean government and in a statement released through anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, which has taken up his cause.

WikiLeaks also released another statement saying Snowden was asking for asylum in several countries, including Russia, China, Brazil, India and Ireland. Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa was quoted in Britain's Guardian newspaper as saying his country could not consider an asylum request unless Snowden was on Ecuadorean territory.

In his WikiLeaks statement, Snowden accused the Obama administration of deception in a campaign to prevent him from finding political asylum and of "leaving me a stateless person" by revoking his U.S. passport.

Snowden, 30, had not been heard from in the eight days since he flew to Moscow from Hong Kong, where he had first taken refuge after fleeing Hawaii.

Snowden has sought asylum in Ecuador and in an undated letter sent to Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa seen by Reuters, said the United States was illegally persecuting him for revealing its electronic surveillance program, Prism, but made it clear he did not intend to be muzzled.

'UNEQUAL WORLD'

"I remain free and able to publish information that serves the public interest," Snowden, who had been a contract employee for the U.S. National Security Agency, said in the letter.

"No matter how many more days my life contains, I remain dedicated to the fight for justice in this unequal world. If any of those days ahead realize a contribution to the common good, the world will have the principles of Ecuador to thank."

But in an interview published on the Guardians website on Monday, Correa said giving Snowden a temporary travel pass to fly to Moscow was "a mistake on our part" and that Snowden was now Russia's problem.

"Are we responsible for getting him to Ecuador? It's not logical," he said.

Asked if he would like to meet Snowden, Correa said: "Not particularly. He's a very complicated person. Strictly speaking, Mr. Snowden spied for some time."

Snowden said the U.S. government was persecuting him.

"While the public has cried out support of my shining a light on this secret system of injustice, the Government of the United States of America responded with an extrajudicial man-hunt costing me my family, my freedom to travel, and my right to live peacefully without fear of illegal aggression," Snowden wrote.

In his WikiLeaks statement, Snowden lashed out at President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden for pressing Ecuador to turn him away.

"This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile," he said.

"Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right," Snowden said. "A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum ... Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me."

U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman Nanda Chitre rejected Snowden's allegation that he was marooned, "since he is still a United States citizen and his country is willing to take him back."

"As the State Department has already said, the U.S. government is prepared to issue individuals wanted on felony charges a one entry travel document to return home," she said.

LONG LIST OF COUNTRIES

WikiLeaks disclosed on Monday that Snowden had prepared requests for asylum in countries including Austria, Bolivia, Cuba, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland and Venezuela. The requests were given to a Russian official at the airport and were to be delivered to the appropriate embassies in Moscow.

Snowden already has sought asylum in Ecuador and Iceland.

Russian Foreign Ministry and Kremlin officials declined immediate comment.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Snowden could stay in Russia on one condition.

"He must stop his work aimed at harming our American partners, as strange as that sounds coming from my lips," he told reporters after a gas exporters' conference in Moscow.

Putin said he suspected that Snowden would continue leaking information because "he feels himself to be a human rights activist."

"So he must choose a country of destination and go there," he said, speaking before the asylum request to Russia was reported. "Unfortunately, I don't know when this will happen."

Putin said Russia was not working with Snowden and had no intention of handing Snowden over to the United States.

"Russia has never given up anyone to anybody and does not plan to. And nobody ever gave anyone up to us," Putin said.

Shortly after Snowden fled the United States for Hong Kong in May, and long before he arrived in Russia, Putin suggested the surveillance methods he revealed were justified in fighting terrorism, if carried out lawfully.

Although Russia has sometimes exchanged captured spies with the United States, Putin suggested on Monday that this was not on the cards for Snowden. "As for Mr. Snowden, he is not our agent and he is not working with us," Putin said.

Obama, at a news conference in Tanzania, repeated that the United States was working through law enforcement channels to prod Russia to extradite Snowden.

Obama said there had been "high-level discussions with the Russians about trying to find a solution to the problem."


Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/02/us-usa-security-snowden-putin-idUSBRE9600QP20130702

An unsettling report prepared by the Emergencies Ministry (EMERCOM) circulating in the Kremlin today on the just completed talks between Russia and the United States in Washington D.C. says that the Obama regime has requested at least 15,000 Russian troops trained in disaster relief and “crowd functions” [i.e. riot control] be pre-positioned to respond to FEMA Region III during an unspecified “upcoming” disaster.

According to this report, this unprecedented request was made directly to Minister Vladimir Puchkov by US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Director Janet Napolitano who said these Russian troops would work “directly and jointly” with her Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), part of whose mission is to secure the continuity of the US government in the event of natural disasters or war.

Important to note, this report says, is that FEMA Region III, the area Russian troops are being requested for, includes Washington D.C. and the surrounding States of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, “strongly suggesting” that the Obama regime has lost confidence in its own military being able to secure its survival should it be called upon to do so.

In his public statements, yesterday, regarding these matters Minister Puchkov stated, “We have decided that the US Federal Emergency Management Agency and Russia’s Emergencies Ministry will work together to develop systems to protect people and territory from cosmic impacts,” and further noted that his meeting with DHS Director Napolitano also covered other kinds of natural emergencies, such as recent years’ extreme weather in both Russia and United States.

In this EMERCOM report, however, Minister Puchkov notes that the Russian troops being requested by the Obama regime would “more than likely” be paired with US-DHS troops who last year purchased nearly 2 billion rounds of ammunition and just this past month placed and emergency order for riot gear.

As to what “upcoming disaster” the US is preparing for, this report continues, appears to be “strongly related” to last weeks assassination of American reporter MichaelHastings who was killed while attempting to reach the safety of the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles, and as we had reported on in our 20 June report Top US Journalist Attempting To Reach Israeli Consulate Assassinated.

Further to be noted about Hastings assassination by the Obama regime is the continued US mainstream propaganda news cover-up of it, though many freelance reporters continue to uncover the truth, such as Jim Stone whose investigation noted that the rear portion of Hastings car was blown open and shredded with the rest of the car nicely intact, which runs counter to the “official” story that this vehicle has hit a tree.


Not mentioned in this EMERCOM report is any suggestion that Russia would comply with this request from the Obama regime, especially in light of the horrifying information being given to Russian intelligence analysts from Edward Snowden who has been labeled as the most wanted man in the world.

According to one Federal Security Services (FSB) bulletin on their continued debriefing of Snowden, and analysis of the information he has provided Russian intelligence officers, his father, Lonnie Snowden, was an officer in the US Coast Guard during the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States who had “direct knowledge” of the true events that occurred and whom the real perpetrators were.


Being directly affected by the events of 9/11, this FSB bulletin says, Snowden “self initiated” a multi-year effort to gain access to America’s top secrets, a mission which when recently completed led him to contact various international reporters, including Hastings, whom he believed could be trusted with disseminating the information he had obtained.

Though known to us directly from our Kremlin sources as to the exact connections Snowden’s information proves regarding 9/11 and both the Bush and Obama regimes, and the even more horrific event soon to come, a June 2013Defence Advisory Notice (DA-Notice) prevents our being able to…at this time.

Likewise, and as the assassination of Hastings clearly shows, the Obama regime claims a legal right to kill anyone it so chooses without charges or trial they believe may threaten US national security, and what Snowden’s information reveals definitely falls into that category.

What can be said though, there is a critical reason billionaires all over the world have been dumping their stocks, and fast; and those who are not able to read between the lines will soon find themselves in the most dangerous situation they’ve ever encountered.

Forewarned IS forearmed.


Source: http://www.eutimes.net/2013/06/obama-requests-15000-russian-troops-for-upcoming-disaster/

Edward Snowden hasn’t been seen on Thursday’s flight from Moscow to Cuba and has no ticket booked out of Russia over the next three days. With no valid passport, the NSA whistleblower might be stuck in airport limbo indefinitely.

The hot pursuit of Snowden has ground to a halt four days after the former CIA technician, wanted in the US on espionage charges, flew into Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport from Hong Kong. 

He was not seen on the latest flight from Moscow to Havana, to which he was reportedly going to before becoming stranded in Russia, reports RT’s Irina Galushko, who is among the many journalists hunting for the whistleblower at the airport’s transit zone.

“Obviously he has to go to someplace which doesn’t require a passport and not in friendly relations with the United States. So Havana, Cuba, seems to be the most obvious choice,” she said.

He is expected to leave Russia eventually, with Ecuador, Cuba, Venezuela and Ireland named among possible destinations.

Washington, which wants Snowden for leaking details of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) dragnet telephone and Internet surveillance programs, charges that there is a clear legal basis for Moscow to hand him over. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who confirmed that Snowden had arrived in Moscow as a transit passenger despite speculation to the contrary, rebuffed US demands on Tuesday. 

“We can only extradite any foreign citizens to such countries with which we have signed the appropriate international agreements on criminal extradition,” Putin said, adding that as Snowden had committed no crime on Russian soil, he is free to travel at will. 

"Snowden is a free person. The sooner he chooses his final destination, the better it is for him and Russia,"Putin continued. 

However, the former NSA contractor appears to be staying put, as neither him nor his WikiLeaks-affiliated legal adviser Sarah Harrison have made travel plans over the coming days. 

"They are not flying today and not over the next three days," an Aeroflot representative at the transfer desk at Sheremetyevo told Reuters. 

"They are not in the system." 

Snowden’s stopover in the transit zone at Sheremetyevo could be prolonged indefinitely, as his passport, which was annulled by the US on Saturday, leaves him without the necessary documentation with which to travel, a source reportedly connected with Snowden told Interfax. 

“Snowden’s American passport is void and he is not in possession of any other document with which he can prove his identity. For this reason, he has to stay in Sheremetyevo’s transit zone and cannot leave Russia nor buy a ticket,” the source said. 

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told RT that Snowden had been given special refugee documents by the Ecuadorian government which facilitated his travel to Russia. Still, the country's top Foreign Ministry official, Galo Galarza said on Wednesday that Ecuador has not granted Edward Snowden any refugee documents. 

"He [Snowden] does not have a document issued by Ecuador, such as a passport or a refugee card, as speculated," said Galarza, as quoted by Ecuadorian television channel CT. So now it is unclear whether the whistleblower can continue traveling at all.  

WikiLeals warned via Twitter on Wednesday that "cancelling Snowden's passport and bullying intermediary countries may keep Snowden permanently in Russia.” 


Snowden, who has applied for asylum in Ecuador, was expected to make the next leg of his journey on Monday, as he had booked two tickets to Havana, Cuba. Snowden never showed for the flight, and according to RIA-Novosti, two tickets which he later booked for a Tuesday flight to the Cuban capital were returned just hours before departure. The next flight to Havana leaves on Wednesday. 

If he ever makes it to Cuba, the next stop in his journey would be Caracas, Venezuela. President Nicolas Maduro, who coincidentally is expected in Moscow next week for an energy summit, has said Caracas would also consider an asylum request from the whistleblower. 

Although dozens of Moscow-based journalists have been staked out at the airport since Sunday, not a single image of Snowden has surfaced. 

A receptionist at the Air Express Capsule Hotel in Terminal E of Sheremetyevo Airport told RIA-Novosti that Snowden had in fact spent several hours in one of the suites, “but left a long time ago.” 

Several journalists attempted to make contact with Snowden during his stay at the hotel, but were unsuccessful, the hotel employee continued. 

It has been speculated that Snowden, who remains at an undisclosed location within the transit zone, is purposely being held up by Russian security services for interrogation. 

WikiLeaks has refuted the accusation, saying Harrison "is escorting him at all times." 

Source: http://rt.com/news/snowden-terminal-passport-stuck-265/