U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, who is wanted in the United States on espionage charges, has accepted Venezuela’s offer of asylum, according to a senior Russian lawmaker.
“Snowden has given his agreement to (Venezuelan President Nicolas) Maduro’s offer of political asylum,” Alexei Pushkov, the pro-Kremlin chairman of the international affairs committee in Russia’s lower parliament house, stated on Twitter.
A few minutes after, Pushkov deleted the Tweet.
The smartphone App Circa news released a screenshot that seems to correspond to the erased tweet.
Russian lawmaker tweets and deletes message saying Snowden accepted asylum in Venezuela pic.twitter.com/erSYsI0hBN
— Circa (@Circa) July 9, 2013
Later on, Pushkov explained through another tweet —this time not erased— that his source was the Russian news channel “Vesti 24”.
Информация, что Сноуден принял предложение об убежище от Мадуро пришла из 18-часового выпуска "Вести 24". По всем вопросам обращаться к ним
— Алексей Пушков (@Alexey_Pushkov) July 9, 2013
Also read Venezuelan president says the door is open to Snowden
Reuters/ euronews