Edward Snowden has not requested for asylum, says Russia

Rio De Janeiro: Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said his nation hasn't received an asylum request from the former CIA Edward Snowden, who has identified himself as the person who leaked details of a secret US National Security Agency surveillance program.

Mr Lavrov, who is visiting Brazil, said on Tuesday that if a request arrives from Edward Snowden, "we will examine that request."

Mr Lavrov says he won't speculate on the likelihood of any such request - nor what action Russia would take if it were received.

Mr Snowden fled to Hong Kong after leaking word of a tracking program that collects the telephone records of millions of Americans and taps into computers of many Internet services to retrieve information about foreigners living outside the US.