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of Justice charged with corruption; and Suleyman Kerimov, a civil servant from Dagestan, who
had amassed an estimated fortune of $7.1 billion. Kerimov recently had been charged for
manipulating a Potash cartel case in Belarus. Most of these clients were reputed to be part of
Putin’s inner circle.

To break the ice, I asked him about Oliver Stone. I knew he had a small role in Oliver Stone’s
forthcoming movie “Snowden.” in which he plays Snowden’s lawyer in Moscow.

“I was impressed by how few takes he needed to shoot my scene,” he answered.

“How did you come to be Snowden’s lawyer?” I asked.

“Snowden picked me from a roster of 15 lawyers with which he had been given.” He then went
to Sheremetyevo International Airport to meet his new client. They met on the morning of Friday
July 12, 2013. At that point, he said that Snowden had been held virtually incommunicado for 20
days. Other than Russian officials, the only person he had been allowed to see during this period
was Assange’s aide, Sarah Harrison.

“Where in the airport did you meet him?” I asked. Was it in a VIP lounge?”

“It was in the transit zone,” he replied coyly. “That is all I can say.” They spoke through a
translator, as Snowden did not speak Russian. By this time, Sarah Harrison had sent 21 countries
petitions for asylum that were signed by Snowden. Whatever their purpose, Kucherena did not
consider them helpful. “I told him that if he wanted to get sanctuary in Russia, he would have to
immediately withdraw all the petitions in which he had asked other countries for asylum.”
Kucherena said that otherwise he could not represent him. Snowden agreed to that condition.

Later that afternoon Kucherena accompanied Snowden to area G9 in the transit zone where
they emerged from a door marked “authorized personnel only” shortly before 5 PM. The room
was packed with representatives of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Wikileaks and
other Moscow-based activist groups. They had been invited the previous day by an emails signed
“Edward Snowden” instructing then to go to Terminal F at Sheremetyevo International Airport
where they would be met by airport personnel carrying a “G9.” It was a rare, if not
unprecedented, event, for an American citizen to defect to Russia.

Wearing an open-neck blue shirt and badly-creased jacket, Snowden read a prepared statement
that accused the United States government of violating the universal declaration of human rights
and described himself as a victim of political persecution. He then formally announced that he
was “requesting asylum in Russia.”

In discussing this meeting, Kucherena told me that Snowden had not intended to seek asylum
in Russia when he arrived on June 23. Since he also said he had not met Snowden prior to July
12th, I asked how he knew Snowden’s intentions.

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