Snowden was forced to remain in Moscow over Cuba’s decision to bar his entry – daily

(Interfax – August 26, 2013) Former CIA employee Edward Snowden changed his plans of flying from Moscow to a Latin American country after he learned that Cuba had decided to deny landing to an Aeroflot plane carrying him, Kommersant reported on Monday.

“Moscow definitely expected that Edward Snowden who arrived at [Moscow’s] Sheremetyevo airport on June 23 would fly to Havana no later than in 22 hours as his ticket indicated. Ecuador or Bolivia, according to some sources, was supposed to become his ultimate destination,” the daily says quoting a source in Russian government bodies.

However, Snowden did not appear in his reserved seat 17A on the June 24 Aeroflot flight to Havana, the newspaper says.

Several well-informed Kommersant sources said Cuba under pressure from the U.S. informed Moscow that the Aeroflot airliner would not be allowed to land in Havana, if Snowden were aboard.

A source close to the U.S. State Department confirmed that Cuba belonged to the group of countries that received warnings from the U.S. that any assistance given to Snowed would have “undesirable consequences.”

Meanwhile, a newspaper source close to Snowden said that before leaving Hong Kong for Moscow on June 23 the fugitive spent several days at the Russian consulate general in that special administrative region of China.