With three asylum offers on the table, how will Snowden get to safety?

Jul 8, 2013 20:21 GMT  ·  By

Snowden must say if he accepts Venezuela’s asylum offer today or if he chooses to go to another country or wait out until more countries say yes to his request.

However, now that he has three options to choose from and more possibly on the way, a problem remains – leaving the Sheremetyevo transit area.

In order to leave to any of these locations, Snowden first needs legal documents since his have been canceled by the American authorities.

This could be easily arranged if one country offers him refugee papers, such as the ones Ecuador’s London consul provided for him to leave Hong Kong three weeks ago.

The second, more stressful, problem seems to be the way he will get from Russia all the way to any of the three countries that have accepted his asylum request.

If he flies with a commercial airline, the plane could end up in Ireland, France or Spain to refuel before crossing the Ocean.

Two of these countries have already mentioned that if Snowden lands on their territory, they will arrest him as their local authorities have already received arrest warrants from the United States.

One option would be to board a plane out to Havana, Cuba, as he wanted to do the second day after he landed in Moscow. For instance, the Aeroflot Russian flight takes over 12 and a half hours to get to the destination in the Cuban capital, but it doesn’t stop anywhere along the way.

Once in South America, Snowden’s way towards any of the countries that have offered him asylum could be smooth since they have mostly expressed their distrust to the US government and their efforts to get Snowden, whom they consider to be a man who only tried to tell the truth.

Time will tell what route Edward Snowden will choose and then, at least one chapter will end in this entire scandal.