Spokesman: Putin expects ties with US to develop positively

Russian President Vladimir Putin hopes relations with the United States will be developing positively, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in reply to the question about the situation around former CIA employee Edward Snowden. At the same time, he declined to answer the question whether the developments around Snowden would tell on relations between the two states. “I don’t know,” he said. Peskov confirmed that Putin knew about Snowden’s official request to grant him temporary asylum. “The president is in the know,” he said, adding that there had been “no reaction” from Putin. “If we are speaking about temporary asylum, this is not within his competence at all; it is considered by the Federal Migration Service, and moreover not at the level of its leadership,” he said. Speaking about Putin, the spokesman reminded reporters that the president is in the Baikal region on a working trip and is engaged on Tuesday in domestic policy issues. “This is the absolute priority,” he stressed. Earlier on Tuesday, Edward Snowden handed in an application to a representative of the Federal Migration Service requesting temporary asylum