Snowden's Moscow Lawyer: He Has Been Granted Temporary Asylum In Russia And Has Left Airport

REUTERS/Grigory DukorPolice guard a door where human rights groups were taken to meet former intelligence agency contractor Edward Snowden at Sheremetyevo airport July 12, 2013.National Security Agency whistleblower/leaker Edward Snowden has received documents that allow him to enter Russian territory and has left the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport today, according to his Moscow lawyer.

“I have just handed over to him papers from the Russian Immigration Service. They are what he needs to leave the transit zone,” Anatoly Kucherena, who is assisting the 30-year-old, told Interfax.

Reuters reports that Kucherena told state TV that Snowden has been transported to a "secure location."

Last month Kucherena, who has links to the country's intelligence service (i.e. FSB), told Russia Today that the documents from Russia's Federal Migration Service “guarantee him the same rights and freedoms possessed by the citizens of the Russian Federation.”

Previously Kucherena said that Snowden plans to live and work in Russia.

“He’s planning to arrange his life here. He plans to get a job," Kucherena said. "And, I think, that all his further decisions will be made considering the situation he found himself in.”

It appears Snowden has been granted one-year of asylum, which "can be prolonged for another year and this can be repeated an indefinite number of times afterwards," according to Kucherena.