Russian President Vladimir Putin joked on Thursday that if former Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey suffers persecution because of his falling-out with US President Donald Trump, Russia is ready to grant him asylum.
Comey, who was overseeing the probe of Russia's involvement in the US elections, was recently sacked by US President Trump.
It will be recalled that Comey had accused President Donald Trump of firing him to try to undermine the FBI investigation into possible collusion between his 2016 presidential campaign team and Russian Federation.
Snowden, a computer professional who had done contractual work for the US National Security Agency, is now living under asylum in Russian Federation.
"This sounds unusual when a secret service chief records his conversation with the commander-in-chief to hand the record to the media", Putin said of Comey's practice of note taking. The Justice Department, FBI and Senate and House Intelligence committees are all investigating Russian election meddling as well as potential links between Trump and the Kremlin.
"[Former FBI Director James Comey] thinks there was Russia's interference in the electoral process, but does not provide any proof again", Putin said. "They just do not want to quarrel with the U.S. side, no one directly talks of this", Putin added.
"The thing is, I don't want them to grow up like hereditary princes, I want them to grow up to be normal people", Putin said in explaining the secrecy around his family.
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However, Kalanick is the face of Uber and as such, his departure - be it temporary - will be a much more momentous event. Uber confirmed to the BBC that "the board unanimously voted to adopt all the recommendations of the Holder Report".
Russian Federation has managed to overcome its recession and achieved a year-on-year growth of 0.7 percent in the first quarter of 2017, he said.
He played it mostly straight on U.S. Putin said he was surprised because the average wage for teachers in her region should be twice that.
Cautiously lifting the veil on his closely-guarded personal life, he revealed to for the first time that he has grandchildren, while saying he wants to keep them out of the spotlight so they can grow up "normally".
"We have seen a decline in the real income of citizens in the past few years".
For context, Russian Federation offered and gave asylum to Snowden after he leaked top-secret documents to The Guardian and The Washington Post during the Obama administration in 2013.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says he does not believe his country and the United States are enemies and downplayed fresh sanctions levied against his country by the American lawmakers.
The US Senate's efforts against Russian Federation have been "completely groundless" as "nothing extraordinary has happened" recently in the Ukraine conflict, Putin said.
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