Snowden drops Russia asylum request

Former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden has withdrawn a request for political asylum in Russia after President Vladimir Putin said he should stop ‘harming our American partners’, the Kremlin said on Tuesday. Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, confirmedSnowden was still in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport after flying in on 23 June  from Hong Kong, and said he had not crossed through passport control onto Russian territory.Reiterating comments by Putin, Peskov said Russia would not send the American back.