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President Barack Obama's decision to pull out of a one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow next month punctuates a steady decline in relations and represents an unusually sharp rebuke for an administration pledged to engaging adversaries. Mr. Obama had planned to meet in early September with Mr. Putin before going to a Group of 20 Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia. The White House said Wednesday he will still attend the G-20. The decision comes after Russia decided to grant asylum, over White House objections, to Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked classified information.

The White House Thursday expressed "extreme disappointment" at Russia's capitulation to the ProSnoSponVnt pressure, The general consensus anguish is spontaneous and saturates the white house from stem to stern, Jay Carney implied at a daily press briefing. Gnashing of teeth and self flagellation have not been ruled out according to inside sources. Nsa (Langly) prepares to allow agent gnash and sflag extreme disappointment demo.

Attorney General Eric Holder has told the Russian government that the U.S. will not seek the death penalty for former National Security Agency systems analyst Edward Snowden.

Snowden Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize After ‘Disrepute Incurred’ for Picking Obama By Andrew Johnson July 15, 2013 11:49 AM A Swedish professor has nominated NSA leaker Edward Snowden for the Nobel Peace Prize for his revelations of the surveillance program, but also to redeem the award’s prestige after it was awarded to President Obama in 2009. In his letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Umea University’s Stefan Svallfors argues that Snowden, who would be the award’s youngest winner at 30, exemplified that “individuals can stand up for fundamental rights and freedoms.” Svallfors lauded Snowden’s “heroic effort at great personal...

An Aeroflot plane en route from Moscow to Havana has deviated from its course, FlightAware live flight tracking indicates. The news has sparked online speculation that NSA leaker Edward Snowden may be aboard the aircraft. However upon arrival in the Cuban capital, crew members told reporters that Snowden was not on board the flight. Aeroflot flight 150 to Havana took off from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport at 14:10 pm local time (10:10 GMT) on Thursday and landed around 22:30 GMT. Whistleblower Edward Snowden has been holed up in the airport for the past two weeks. The flight route usually passes over...

US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, who has been holed up in a Moscow airport for more than two weeks, has agreed to an offer of political asylum from Venezuela, a top pro-Kremlin lawmaker said on Tuesday.

The head of the Russian parliament's foreign affairs committee says Edward Snowden has accepted Venezuela's offer of political asylum. Alexei Pushkov made the statement on his Twitter account Tuesday. The message did not clarify how he learned of Snowden's purported acceptance, but Pushkov has acted as an unofficial point-man for the Kremlin on the Snowden affair.

Whistleblower Edward Snowden might soon be living up to his frigid last name as Icelandic lawmakers have put legislation on the table that would make the NSA's most wanted man a citizen of the polar country. Member of Iceland's parliament Ögmundur Jónasson first made the proposition this morning, the last day before the 63-member legislative body begins their summer leave. Granting citizenship to Snowden, who admits to revealing key details of U.S. surveillance activities would circumvent the rule that he must be on Icelandic soil to apply for asylum there.

Businessman says he has a Chinese jet on standby in case Icelandic government green-lights asylum An Icelandic businessman is offering to transport Edward Snowden to the island nation aboard a chartered jet if Iceland's government grants asylum to the man who exposed the National Security Agency's massive harvesting of Internet and phone records. "Everything is ready on our side and the plane could take off tomorrow,'' DataCell executive Olafur Sigurvinsson told Iceland's Channel 2 television station, Agence France-Presse reports. "We have really done all we can do. We have a plane and all the logistics in place. Now we are...