MOSCOW. Jan 21 (Interfax) - If former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden or his representatives appeal to the Russian government for protection, law enforcement agencies will be willing to consider this request, a law enforcement source told Interfax.
"We haven't yet received any appeals from Snowden or his representatives. But if we receive such, we will consider it in due course," he said.
Anatoly Kucherena, a prominent Russian lawyer representing Snowden's interests in Russia, told Interfax he intends to ask Russian and U.S. law enforcement agencies to check reports on threats of Snowden's physical elimination and take appropriate measures to protect him.
"We will ask both Russian and U.S. law enforcement agencies to check all these threats and, if need be, assess them from the legal viewpoint and ensure his security," Kucherena said.
Snowden has bodyguards ensuring his security in Russia, Kucherena said. "These are members of a private security agency, but we are talking about providing security at the government level," he said.
Snowden's U.S. legal adviser Ben Wizner would simultaneously take relevant steps in the United States, he said.
"Direct threats of physical elimination on the part of some retired members of American special services have been coming increasingly more often of late," Kucherena said. "It's gone as far as some officers who earlier served in special forces have said they are ready to kill Edward," he said.
Kucherena pointed out that neither Snowden nor his defense attorneys have still received any official indictment against him.
"At the same time, the U.S. president's recent statement on the plans of the NSA's reform aimed at restricting special services' interference in people's private lives and the tapping of friendly heads of state's conversations indicates that Snowden was right and his deeds justified," Kucherena said.