India has rejected NSA leaker Edward Snowden's request for political asylum, the External Affairs Ministry said Tuesday. 
 
 The Indian embassy in Moscow had received a request for asylum from Snowden, ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin told reporters. 
 
 He said India carefully examined the request and decided to turn it down. 
 
 The government has "concluded that we see no reason to accede to that request," he said. 
 
 Earlier Tuesday, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said India "has a very careful and restrictive policy on asylums." 
 
 "We have given asylums in the past but we are not an open house for asylums since we have a careful and objective policy," he said in Brunei, where he is attending a regional security forum. 
 
 India has not ratified a 1951 international convention on refugees and has no regular procedure for granting asylum to people fleeing persecution. 
 
 The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks has said that Snowden has applied to more than 20 countries for asylum, including India and China. 
 
 Snowden has been on the run since he exposed highly secret National Security Agency surveillance programs. He is believed to be staying in the transit area of Moscow's airport since arriving there from Hong Kong on June 23. ||||| Image caption Edward Snowden is believed to be staying at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport 
 
 Fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden has sent asylum requests to 21 countries, according to a statement published by Wikileaks. 
 
 They include China, France, Ireland and Venezuela. But eight European countries said the requests were invalid. 
 
 And Russia said Mr Snowden later withdrew the application to Moscow as the Kremlin had set conditions. 
 
 He accuses US President Barack Obama of putting pressure on the countries to which he has applied. 
 
 The former intelligence systems analyst, who is holed up at Moscow airport, is wanted by the US on charges of leaking secrets. 
 
 Analysis Vladimir Putin's warning to Mr Snowden that he should stop "harming our American partners" is indicative of a significant shifting of gear. Russia now has ownership of the Snowden affair. What happens to Mr Snowden will depend upon Russia's calculations and what serves Russia's interests. The authorities in Moscow could have moved Mr Snowden on quickly, joining the diplomatic game of pass-the-parcel that began in Hong Kong. But the longer the errant US intelligence analyst stays in limbo at the Moscow airport, so the more Russia has become a central actor in this drama. Russia must balance a range of factors in seeking to determine Mr Snowden's fate - the risk of a serious rift with Washington and Russia's own standing as an international actor that upholds the legal order must be set against the strong vein of sympathy for Mr Snowden amongst Russian public opinion. 
 
 US Secretary of State John Kerry raised Mr Snowden's case in talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the Asean summit in Brunei. 
 
 But Mr Kerry said the two did not discuss the matter substantively. 
 
 "I did raise the issue of Mr Snowden but that is not his portfolio, nor is it mine, but it is being handled within the justice department," he said, quoted by Reuters news agency. 
 
 'Not an agent' 
 
 The Wikileaks press release said that most of the asylum requests - including to Russia itself - were handed to the Russian consulate at Sheremetyevo airport late on Sunday for delivery to the relevant embassies in Moscow. 
 
 The requests were submitted by Sarah Harrison, a British member of the Wikileaks legal team acting as Mr Snowden's representative, the statement added. 
 
 But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later said Mr Snowden withdrew the application to Russia because Moscow had said he should give up "anti-American activity". 
 
 "After learning of Russia's position yesterday, voiced by President Putin ... he abandoned his intention [of staying] and his request to be able to stay in Russia," he said. 
 
 Russian President Vladimir Putin had said that while Moscow "never hands over anybody anywhere", Mr Snowden could only stay on condition that he stopped damaging Russia's "American partners" with his leaks. 
 
 Mr Snowden has reportedly been in the transit area of Sheremetyevo since arriving there from Hong Kong on 23 June. 
 
 Mr Peskov confirmed he was still there and had not crossed into Russian territory, adding that the former analyst had never been a Russian agent and had never worked with its intelligence services. 
 
 Norway, Poland, Germany, Austria, Finland, Ireland, Spain and Switzerland said asylum requests could only be made on their soil. 
 
 Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who is on a visit to Moscow, said Caracas had not yet received an asylum application from Mr Snowden but that he had "done something very important for humanity" and "deserved the world's protection". 
 
 "The world's conscience should react, the world youth should react, the decent people who want a peaceful world should react, everyone should react and find solidarity with this young man who has denounced and altered the world that they [the US] pretend to control." 
 
 Mr Snowden had previously submitted an application to Ecuador, whose embassy in London is sheltering Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, and to Iceland. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Vladimir Putin: "He should cease his work aimed at damaging our American partners" 
 
 Ecuador's President Rafael Correa told the Agence France-Presse news agency on Monday that his country would process Mr Snowden's asylum request if he managed to enter an Ecuadorean embassy. 
 
 However, if he can complete his asylum request on Russian territory , then "the situation can be processed and resolved there," President Correa added. 
 
 Details have also emerged of a letter from Mr Snowden to President Correa, thanking Ecuador for guaranteeing "my rights would be protected upon departing Hong Kong - I could never have risked travel without that". 
 
 'Stateless person' 
 
 Speaking in Tanzania on Monday, President Barack Obama said Moscow and Washington had held "high level discussions" about Mr Snowden, who he said had travelled to Moscow without valid documents. 
 
 Mr Snowden describes himself as "a stateless person", accusing the US government of stopping him from exercising the "basic right...to seek asylum". 
 
 "The president ordered his vice president to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions," he is quoted by Wikileaks as saying. 
 
 "This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me." 
 
 The leaking of thousands of classified intelligence documents has led to revelations that the US is systematically seizing vast amounts of phone and web data. ||||| NSA leaker Edward Snowden's attempts to seek refuge outside the United States hit hurdles Tuesday, after Russian media reported he canceled his asylum bid in Russia and several European countries said such applications wouldn't be considered if they were made from abroad. 
 
 FILE - This June 23, 2013 file photo shows a TV screen shows a news report of Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, at a shopping... (Associated Press) 
 
 This screenshot made of the Wikileaks website shows a letter identified as being from NSA leaker Edward Snowden on Monday, July 1, 2013. The letter could not be independently authenticated as being from... (Associated Press) 
 
 Russian news agencies Tuesday quoted President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that Snowden withdrew his request when he learnt about the terms Moscow has set out. Putin said on Monday that Russia is ready to shelter Snowden as long as he stops leaking U.S. secrets. 
 
 At the same time, Putin said he had no plans to turn over Snowden to the United States. 
 
 Meanwhile several of the other countries where the WikiLeaks says Snowden has applied for asylum have said he cannot apply from abroad. Officials in Germany, Norway, Austria, Poland, Finland and Switzerland all said he must make his request on their soil. 
 
 WikiLeaks said requests have also been made to Bolivia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Ecuador, France, Iceland, India, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Spain and Venezuela. 
 
 The asylum requests reported by WikiLeaks and the Snowden statement could not be independently authenticated. 
 
 WikiLeaks also posted a statement attributed to Snowden on its website late Monday, in which he slams President Barack Obama for "using citizenship as a weapon." 
 
 "Although I am convicted of nothing, (the United States) has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person," Snowden says in the statement. "Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum. 
 
 "Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me." 
 
 Snowden, who has been on the run since releasing sensitive NSA documents, is believed to have been in Moscow airport's transit zone since his arrival from Hong Kong on June 23. 
 
 WikiLeaks legal adviser Sarah Harrison delivered the requests for asylum to an official at the Russian consulate at the Moscow airport on Sunday, according to the group that has adopted Snowden and his cause. 
 
 The U.S. has annulled Snowden's passport, and Ecuador, where he had initially hoped to get asylum, has been giving mixed signals about offering him shelter. 
 
 The expanded requests for asylum come as the Obama administration contends with European allies angry about the release of documents that alleged U.S. eavesdropping on European Union diplomats. 
 
 Obama said Monday that the U.S. would provide allies with information about new reports that the NSA had bugged EU offices in Washington, New York and Brussels. But he also suggested such activity by governments would hardly be unusual. ||||| Ecuador is not considering Edward Snowden's asylum request and never intended to facilitate his flight from Hong Kong, president Rafael Correa said, as the whistleblower made a personal plea to Quito for his case to be heard. 
 
 Snowden was Russia's responsibility and would have to reach Ecuadorean territory before the country would consider any asylum request, the president said in an interview with the Guardian on Monday. 
 
 "Are we responsible for getting him to Ecuador? It's not logical. The country that has to give him a safe conduct document is Russia." 
 
 The president, speaking at the presidential palace in Quito, said his government did not intentionally help Snowden travel from Hong Kong to Moscow with a temporary travel pass. The Ecuadorean consul in London acted without authority from Quito, he said. 
 
 Asked if he thought the former NSA contractor would ever make it to 
 
 Quito, he replied: "Mr Snowden's situation is very complicated, but in 
 
 this moment he is in Russian territory and these are decisions for the 
 
 Russian authorities." 
 
 On whether Correa would like to meet him, the president said: "Not 
 
 particularly. It's a complicated situation. Strictly speaking, Mr 
 
 Snowden spied for some time." 
 
 The comments contrasted with expressions of gratitude the 30-year-old fugitive issued hours later, before Correa's views had been published. 
 
 "I must express my deep respect for your principles and sincere thanks for your government's action in considering my request for political asylum," Snowden said, according to a letter written in Spanish and obtained by the Press Association news agency, based in London. 
 
 "There are few world leaders who would risk standing for the human rights of an individual against the most powerful government on earth, and the bravery of Ecuador and its people is an example to the world." 
 
 Snowden compared the silence of governments afraid of US retaliation with Ecuador's help in his flight to Moscow on 22 June. A temporary Ecuadorean travel document substituted for his cancelled US passport. 
 
 "The decisive action of your consul in London, Fidel Narvaez, guaranteed my rights would be protected upon departing Hong Kong – I could never have risked travel without that. Now, as a result, and through the continued support of your government, I remain free and able to publish information that serves the public interest." 
 
 The letter will boost Ecuador's reputation with Snowden's supporters but sat awkwardly with the president's attempt to distance Quito from the saga. Correa said Quito respected the right of asylum and appreciated Snowden exposing the extent of US spying, but would not consider an asylum request unless he made it to an Ecuadorean embassy or the country itself – a remote possibility while he remains reportedly marooned in Sheremetyevo airport's transit lounge. "He must be on Ecuadorean territory," the president said. 
 
 Earlier on Monday, Moscow confirmed that Snowden had applied for asylum in Russia. The Los Angeles Times said he had made similar applications to a total of 15 countries. In another statement, issued through by the campaigning website Wikileaks, Snowden attacked President Obama for putting pressure behind the scenes on countries to which he had petitioned for asylum. 
 
 In his Guardian interview, Correa said his government had not, and would not, give Snowden an authorised travel document to extract himself from Moscow airport. "The right of asylum request is one thing but helping someone travel from one country to another — Ecuador has never done this. " 
 
 He said the temporary travel document issued by his London consul on 22 June – and publicly disowned five days later – was issued without official authorisation. "There is a mistake … Look, this crisis hit us in a very vulnerable moment. Our foreign minister was on a 15-day tour. He was in Vietnam. Our deputy foreign minister was in the Czech Republic. Our US ambassador was in Italy." 
 
 Narvaez and the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has sheltered at Ecuador's London embassy for the past year to escape extradition, took matters into their own hands because they feared Snowden risked capture, Correa said. 
 
 "The consul, in his desperation, probably he couldn't reach the foreign minister … and he issued a safe conduct document without validity, without authorisation, without us even knowing." 
 
 Correa said the consul was a "cultured" man who cited the example of Ecuadorean diplomats in Czechoslovakia giving Jews visas in defiance of their foreign ministry during the second world war. 
 
 "Look, he [Assange] is in the embassy, he's a friend of the consul, and he calls him at four in the morning to say they are going to capture Snowden. The [consul] is desperate – 'how are we going to save the life of this man?' – and does it. 
 
 "So I told him: OK, if you think you did the right thing, I respect your decision, but you could not give, without authorisation, that safe conduct pass. It was completely invalid, and he will have to accept the consequences." 
 
 Narvaez would be "sanctioned", the president said, without elaborating. 
 
 Some Ecuadorean diplomats have complained that Assange appeared to usurp Quito but the president said there was no rupture. "Mr Assange continues to enjoy our total respect and is under the protection of the Ecuadorean state." 
 
 Correa, a standard bearer for the left in Latin America, has joined European and other Latin Americans leaders in denouncing US espionage. 
 
 However, he softened his tone over the weekend and praised the US vice-president, Joe Biden, for a gracious phone call, saying he would consider Washington's request to refuse any asylum claim from Snowden while retaining Ecuador's sovereignty. 
 
 • The headline on this article was changed on 3 July 2013 to give a more accurate reflection of the substance of the interview with President Correa. After a review of the original Spanish transcript on 4 July 2013, a quote in which president Correa described the "mistake" surrounding the issuing of Snowden's travel document in Hong Kong was translated more precisely and a reference to Snowden as a complicated person was changed to refer to his circumstances. ||||| Tor 
 
 Tor is an encrypted anonymising network that makes it harder to intercept internet communications, or see where communications are coming from or going to. 
 
 In order to use the WikiLeaks public submission system as detailed above you can download the Tor Browser Bundle, which is a Firefox-like browser available for Windows, Mac OS X and GNU/Linux and pre-configured to connect using the anonymising system Tor. 
 
 Tails 
 
 If you are at high risk and you have the capacity to do so, you can also access the submission system through a secure operating system called Tails. Tails is an operating system launched from a USB stick or a DVD that aim to leaves no traces when the computer is shut down after use and automatically routes your internet traffic through Tor. Tails will require you to have either a USB stick or a DVD at least 4GB big and a laptop or desktop computer.
– Can Edward Snowden afford to be choosy? Authorities in Russia say the NSA leaker has reportedly canceled a request for asylum after balking at the conditions imposed by Vladimir Putin, including no longer leaking information damaging to the US, the AP reports. Snowden has applied for asylum in no fewer than 21 countries, according to WikiLeaks, but the rejections are starting to pile up: Germany, Norway, Austria, Poland, Finland, and Switzerland all say he needs to be on their soil to request asylum. And India this morning "concluded that we see no reason to accede to that request." Norway has confirmed that its Moscow embassy has received a fax that is "probably from him," while Poland's foreign minister says he has received an asylum request from Snowden that he will not recommend granting, the BBC reports. Requests have also been made to Bolivia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Ecuador, France, Iceland, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Spain, and Venezuela, WikiLeaks says. Ecuador's president now says helping Snowden leave Hong Kong was "a mistake," the Guardian reports, but Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro—who is currently visiting Moscow—says his country has yet to receive an asylum request from Snowden, but the leaker has "done something very important for humanity" and "deserved the world's protection."