Vladimir Putin Revals: Edward Snowden in Moscow Airport But Will Not Be Extradited

The Russian president,  Vladimir Putin, has revealed that the  surveillancewhistleblower Edward Snowden is indeed in a Moscow airport, bringing an end to a global guessing game over the US fugitive's whereabouts.

The admission reversed days of Russian obfuscation and came just hours after Putin's foreign minister said  Russia had nothing to do with Snowden's travel plans.

Putin said Snowden remained in the transit area of Sheremetyevo airport and vowed that Moscow would not extradite the whistleblower to the US. He also insisted Russian security services had no contact with Snowden, a claim greeted with suspicion.

"Mr Snowden really did fly into Moscow," Putin said during an official visit to Finland on Tuesday. "For us it was completely unexpected."

Snowden fled Hong Kong on Sunday morning to transit via Moscow to an undisclosed third country, according to WikiLeaks, which said it facilitated his travel. He has applied to be granted political asylum by Ecuador.

Putin said Snowden remained in Sheremetyevo's transit hall, although the high-profile whistleblower has not been spotted once by the dozens of journalists swarming the airport's halls since Sunday. The airport has also hosted a heightened security service presence since Sunday afternoon.

Putin said Russia's security services "did not work and are not working" with Snowden. Snowden fled the  United States before leaking documents on secret US surveillance programmes. The US has charged him under the Espionage Act.

Putin defended Russia's actions and said Snowden, possibly carrying untold amounts of government secrets, was treated like any other passenger. Yet passengers transiting through Sheremetyevo are usually given 24 hours to pass through the international transit zone.

"He arrived as a transit passenger – he didn't need a visa, or other documents," Putin said. The statement appeared to back up comments made previously by his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, who insisted that Snowden "did not cross the Russian border" but did not comment on whether he was at the airport.

The US has urged Moscow to hand Snowden over. Speaking in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said: "I would simply appeal for calm and reasonableness. We would hope that Russia would not side with someone who is a fugitive from justice."

Putin appeared to lash out at US accusations that the Kremlin was harbouring a fugitive. "Any accusations against Russia are nonsense and rubbish," Putin said.

Putin also appeared to throw his support behind Snowden as well as the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, currently holed up at Ecuador's embassy in London.

"Assange and Snowden consider themselves human rights activists and say they are fighting for the spread of information," Putin said. "Ask yourself this: should you hand these people over so they will be put in prison?

"In any case, I'd rather not deal with such questions, because anyway it's like shearing a pig – lots of screams but little wool."

After leaking documents that exposed the breadth of the US surveillance state, Snowden has come under fire for seeking shelter in China and Russia, both accused of clamping down on citizens' freedoms.

Speaking earlier on Tuesday, Lavrov stressed that Russia was not involved in helping Snowden plan his travels: "I would like to say right away that we have no relation to either Mr Snowden or to his relationship with American justice or to his movements around the world."

"He chose his route on his own, and we found out about it, as most here did, from mass media," said Lavrov, lashing out angrily at suggestions that Russia was involved. "We consider the attempts we are now seeing to blame the Russian side for breaking US laws and being almost in on the plot totally baseless and unacceptable, and even an attempt to threaten us," he said.