Post date: Aug 08, 2013 12:32:22 PM
Edward Snowden may be staying in one of many fenced luxury townhouse communities outside the Moscow ring road on New Riga highway, a newspaper report says.
MOSCOW REGION, RUSSIA (AUGUST 8, 2013) (REUTERS) - Fugitive former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden may be staying in a luxury townhouse community near Moscow, according to reports from a Russian newspaper.
Russia's Arguments and Facts publication listed a source as saying that Snowden may be living in a townhouse community near New Riga highway outside Moscow.The area, 20 km west of Moscow, is known for its luxury gated communities clustered into fenced-off vilagges hidden from view, surrounded by golf courses and yacht clubs that are popular with Russia's elite and upper middle class.
"We have checked our database and found out that there are some ten townhouse communities there (on New Riga highway) with houses for sale. They are all high-end houses, meaning premium, elite and deluxe standards. There is only one 'comfort' standard community, but it is doubtful that the man we are talking about would choose that one. The prices vary from 12 to 40 million rubles ($400,000-1,300,000) for an apartment in a townhouse," head analyst of Inkom real estate agency Dmitry Taganov told Reuters.
"You know, besides the newly built gated communities there is also a secondary housing market which holds a great variety of houses, townhouses, cottages and much more. And I think it is not a problem to put him (Snowden) in a house like that. If a famous person stayed in a newly built community, then naturally the owner would be interested in promoting this event and it would not pass unnoticed for sure," Taganov added.
Snowden left the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on August 1 after nearly six weeks in hiding, ducked into a car and was driven away unnoticed.
His Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, said Snowden would stay with American friends.
Kucherena, who serves on a board that advises Russia's FSB security service, a successor of the KGB, is one of the few people who have had direct contact with Snowden since he arrived at Sheremetyevo from Hong Kong on June 23.
The FSB also owns a little-known sanatorium called "Dubrava" 10 kilometres north of Moscow where a gated residential community was built recently on the nearby territory. It is reminiscent of the gated communities on New Riga highway. Outsiders cannot get access inside the guarded residential complex .
Russia's granting Snowden a year's asylum has opened a rift in relations betweenRussia and the U.S.
On Wednesday (August 7) U.S. President Barack Obama canceled a Moscowsummit with President Vladimir Putin planned for next month in retaliation forRussia's decision to grant Snowden asylum.
The move marks a stark low point in U.S.-Russian relations and raised questions about the "reset" in ties that Obama embarked on in his first term to try to gain more diplomatic cooperation, only to find that deep differences remained.