Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has offered asylum to US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden. Source: AAP
US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden remained stranded in a Moscow airport for the 14th day amid rising hopes he may finally be able to leave Russia after being offered asylum by Venezuela.
The saga surrounding the fugitive former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor took a new turn late on Friday when Venezuela's leftist President Nicolas Maduro offered to grant him "humanitarian asylum".
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega had only moments earlier also said his Latin American country could offer a safe haven for one of Washington's most wanted men "if circumstances permit".
Snowden, 30, had earlier been denied asylum by many of the 21 countries to which he had applied last week.
The WikiLeaks anti-secrecy website, which has been supporting Snowden's cause, said he had recently applied to six additional countries it refused to name.
But it was far from clear how exactly Snowden could reach another nation from the transit zone of Russia's sprawling Sheremetyevo international airport.
He has been stripped of his passport by the US authorities and a refugee pass initially believed to have been offered to him by Ecuador has since been declared invalid.
Snowden could only take flights from Sheremetyevo and not another Moscow airport to which visiting foreign dignitaries such as Maduro have access because he cannot move beyond Russian passport control.
Maduro made his intentions clear in an address at an independence day event in Caracas.
"As head of state of the Bolivarian republic of Venezuela, I have decided to offer humanitarian asylum to the young Snowden ... to protect this young man from the persecution launched by the most powerful empire in the world," Maduro said.
Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega voiced a slightly more toned down message only minutes earlier.
"We are open, respectful of the right to asylum, and it is clear that if circumstances permit it, we would receive Snowden with pleasure and give him asylum here in Nicaragua," Ortega said at a public event.
Ecuador had been seen as the American's best hope when he arrived in Moscow from Hong Kong on June 23 after leaking secrets about the extent of the US data surveillance programme to the press.
But the leftist government in Quito has yet to consider his application.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has refused to extradite Snowden to the US while still stressing that he would like to see him gone as soon as possible.
"Russia is not happy that he is here. If it wanted to offer him asylum, this would have been done right away," said Carnegie Moscow Centre analyst Maria Lipman.
She noted that Putin himself was a former KGB spy who cares deeply about the safety of state secrets.
"Putin does not want to help someone who reveals secrets - Putin is very serious about this," said Lipman.
"He would like to get rid of Snowden, but this is getting more and more difficult," the analyst said.
Putin has denied ever questioning Snowden about the details of the US spy network and has even suggested that doing so was not worth the effort.
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