Edward Snowden Cleared to Leave Moscow Airport (Almost)

 Edward Snowden will be allowed to leave the Moscow airport, where he has been holed up for more than a month following a Russian government decision to consider his request for temporary asylum, Russian media reported Wednesday.

“Snowden is passing the passport control now, a procedure that for him, a man without a valid passport, may take longer than just stamping a passport,” a Federal Migration Service officer who requested anonymity told the Los Angeles Times.

The officer later said that Snowden did not have all the documents he needed and will have to stay in the airport transit zone for at least another day.

LaTi continues:

The Russian Federal Migration Service issued a certificate Wednesday, in effect stating that the agency was reviewing his application Snowden submitted last week seeking temporary shelter, RIA Novosti reported.

The document reportedly allows him to leave the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo-2 airport, where he arrived with a revoked U.S. passport on June 23 and has been unable to legally enter Russia or leave for elsewhere[...]

Snowden’s Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, who was supposed to pick up the certificate, was seen Wednesday afternoon entering the airport and proceeding to Transit Zone E, Interfax reported.

“This certificate will allow Snowden to cross the Russian border and finally leave the airport transit zone,” Kucherena said in an interview  earlier this week, hoping he would get the document on Snowden’s behalf by Wednesday.