World Bulletin / News Desk

Former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has received asylum for a year in Russia and has left Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport, his lawyer said on Thursday.

Snowden's lawyer Anatoly Kucherena held a press conference to a small group of journalists at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport.

Kucherena said that Snowden had received papers allowing him to leave the Moscow Airport where he had been stranded for more than a month.

Kucherena said Snowden left the airport quietly around midday due to security reasons and declined providing information on where his client would stay.

Snowden submitted a request for asylum in Russia on July 16, after being stuck at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport transit zone since arriving from Hong Kong on June 23. Snowden faces prosecution in the US for leaking highly sensitive classified data about the US National Security Agency's surveillance activities.