Edward Snowden: Russian causes confusion with Venezuela asylum tweet Alexei Pushkov, the head of the Russian lower house of parliament's international affairs committee, initially said on Twitter: "As was expected, Snowden agreed to (Venezuelan President Nicolas) Maduro's offer of political asylum. Russian observers suggested that Mr Pushkov may have interpreted a report about Mr Snowden's earlier application to Venezuela for asylum. President Maduro had said over the weekend that he was willing to offer Mr Snowden asylum. In the name of America's dignity, I have decided to offer humanitarian asylum to Edward Snowden. He is a young man who has told the truth, in the spirit of rebellion, about the United States spying on the whole world," he said on Friday. Mr Pushkov has been an increasingly vocal presence on the Snowden affair. Earlier he described Venezuela's offer as Mr Snowden's "last chance" to seek political refuge. Mr Snowden's asylum route could be fraught with difficulty as he would likely be forced to fly over European airspace. Several European countries have already appeared willing to shut their airspace to any aircraft that Mr Snowden was on board. A plane carrying Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, was last week diverted from Moscow to Vienna and searched on suspicion of harbouring Mr Snowden. It was forced to stay in Austria for 13 hours.