Putin, Obama Order FSB, FBI to Find Solution for Snowden

Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama have ordered the chiefs of their respective security agencies to find a way out of the impasse caused by fugitive leaker Edward Snowden's stay in a Moscow airport, a senior official said on Monday.

"Of course (Putin and Obama) don't have a solution now that would work for both sides, so they have ordered the FSB director (Alexander) Bortnikov and FBI director Robert Mueller to keep in constant contact and find solutions," the head of Russia's Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, said in an interview with state television channel Rossiya 24.

Putin noted later on Monday that his country had never extradited anyone before and added that Snowden could remain in Moscow if he stopped issuing his leaks.

"Russia never hands over anybody anywhere and has no intention to do so," Putin said when grilled by reporters about the fate of the U.S. intelligence leaker believed to be holed up in a Moscow airport's transit zone since his arrival from Hong Kong on June 23.

Putin essentially extended an invitation for Snowden to remain in Russia permanently if he stopped leaking U.S. intelligence information.

"If he (Snowden) wants to remain here there is one condition -- he should stop his work aimed at inflicting damage on our American partners no matter how strange this may sound coming from me," Putin said.

The Russian leader reiterated that Russian services were not working with the U.S. fugitive.

"He is not our agent and does not cooperate with us," Putin said. "Our secret services never worked with him and are not working with him now."

"He does not feel like he is an agent of the secret services, he considers himself to be a human rights campaigner, a new dissident, something like Sakharov," Putin said, referring to famous Soviet-era rights campaigner Andrei Sakharov.