NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden surfaces to meet activists at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport Fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden has met leading Russian rights activists. EDWARD Snowden has been seen meeting with human rights activists at Moscow's Sheremetyevo international airport. National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden wants asylum in Russia and is willing to stop sharing information as a trade-off for such a deal, according to a parliament member who was among a dozen activists and officials to meet with him Friday. Mr Snowden appeared nervous, but in apparently good health during the meeting behind closed doors in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport where he's been marooned for weeks, Duma member Vyacheslav Nikonov told reporters. In a statement, Mr Snowden said he had no regrets about leaking information about government surveillance but admitted that it had been at a person cost to him. "The 4th and 5th Amendments to the Constitution of my country, Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and numerous statutes and treaties forbid such systems of massive, pervasive surveillance," Mr Snowden said. While the US Constitution marks these programs as illegal, my government argues that secret court rulings, which the world is not permitted to see, somehow legitimize an illegal affair. "That moral decision to tell the public about spying that affects all of us has been costly, but it was the right thing to do and I have no regrets," he said. A photo attributed to a Human Rights Watch representative who attended the meeting was posted on the Guardian and other websites, the first image to appear of Mr Snowden since the newspaper broke the story of widespread US internet surveillance based on his leaks. An image posted to Twitter of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden meeting with rights activists in Moscow. Picture: Tanya Lokshina - Human Rights Watch Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, told Russian news agencies after the announcement on Friday that Russia has not yet received a new bid for asylum from Mr Snowden and that Mr Putin would continue with his insistence that Mr Snowden stop leaking information. Both Mr Nikonov and Genri Reznik, a lawyer who participated in the meeting, said Mr Snowden was willing to stop leaks. He said he was informed of this condition and that he can easily accept it. He does not intend to damage the United States' interests given that he is a patriot of his country," Mr Nikonov said. Mr Snowden is believed to have been stuck in the transit zone since June 23, when he arrived on a flight from Hong Kong, where he had gone before his revelations were made public. He had been expected to transfer in Moscow to a Cuba-bound flight, but did not get on the plane and had not been seen in public since then. Mr Snowden made an initial bid for Russian asylum, but Putin said he would have to agree to stop leaking before asylum would be considered. Mr Snowden then withdrew his bid. Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua recently have offered him asylum, but it is unclear if he could fly to any of those countries from Moscow without passing through airspace of the United States or its allies. The activists at the meeting included Sergei Nikitin, head of Amnesty International's Russia office, and Tatiana Lokshina, deputy head of the Russian office of Human Rights Watch. Also taken into the meeting room was Russia's presidential human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin. They came after an email in Mr Snowden's name was sent on Thursday. On Facebook, Ms Lokshina posted the text of the email, which says in part that Mr Snowden wants to make "a brief statement and discussion regarding the next steps forward in my situation." Hundreds of journalists flocked to the airport, but were kept in a hallway outside the meeting area which was behind a gray door marked "staff only." It was not clear if Mr Snowden would have to come out that door or if he could exit by another route. The text of the invitation did not directly address the offers of asylum, though it expressed gratitude for asylum offers and says "I hope to travel to each of them." It accuses the United States of "an unlawful campaign ... to deny my right to seek and enjoy this asylum." Russia has said it cannot extradite him because by remaining in the transit zone he is technically outside Russian territory.