Russia grants Snowden temporary asylum for 1 year

Whistleblower left the Sheremetyevo airport after over one month.

Brushing aside pleas and warnings from President Obama and other senior American officials,Russia granted Edward J Snowden temporary asylum and allowed him to walk free out of a Moscow airport transit zone on Thursday,ending his legal limbo there after more than five weeks.

Snowden thanked Russia in a statement issued by WikiLeaks. He accused the United States of disregarding the law in its global manhunt to arrest him and said in the end,the law is winning.

Russias decision,which infuriated American officials,significantly alters the legal status of Snowden,the former intelligence analyst wanted by the US for leaking details of the NSAs surveillance programmes. Even as those leaks continued,Snowden now has legal permission to live and conceivably even work anywhere in Russia for as long as a year,safely out of the reach of American prosecutors.

Snowden,30,departed Sheremetyevo Airport unexpectedly at 3:30 pm after his lawyer,Anatoly Kucherena,delivered to him a passport-like document issued by the Federal Migration Service on Wednesday and valid until July 31,2014.

We are extremely disappointed that the Russian Federation would take this step, White House press secretary Jay Carney said in Washington.

Carney said President Obama had not decided whether to cancel a planned a trip to Moscow in September but he strongly suggested he would. We are evaluating the utility of a summit, he said.

American lawmakers have called for harsh retaliation against Russia,even a boycott of the Winter Olympic Games to be held in Sochi.

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Putin,who spent the day at his official residence,meeting with the president of Tajikistan,learned of Snowdens release Thursday,Kremlins spokesman Dmitri Peskov said.

Meanwhile,founder of Russias most popular social network VKontakte,known as the Facebook of Russia,Thursday offered a job to Snowden,Agence France-Presse reported.

on the run

May 20: Snowden leaves Hawaii for Hong Kong

June 1: Snowden reveals details of US spying programmes to British newspaper Guardian

June 9: Snowden goes public

June 23: Snowden arrives at Sheremetyevo airport

June 24: Snowden has seat booked for an Aeroflot flight to

Havana but does not board

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June 25: President Putin says Moscow will not hand him over to the United States

June 27: US President Obama says Russia or other countries considering asylum requests for Snowden should follow international law

July 2: Snowden withdraws request for political asylum

July 5: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro offers asylum