Will Snowden have to fly 14000 miles to avoid capture by US?: NSA leaker plans ...

Venezuela offers asylum but Snowden's path to the Latin American country may have force him across the Pacific to avoid American and EU airspace The 30-year-old won't be allowed aboard the most direct flight from Moscow via Havana, Cuba Bolivia and Nicaragua have also offered asylum Russia is increasingly vocal about its annoyance at Snowden's weeks-long presence at a Moscow airport

By Will Stewart In Moscow

PUBLISHED: 12:35 EST, 7 July 2013 | UPDATED: 02:16 EST, 8 July 2013

Edward Snowden was caught last night in a 6,175 mile Catch-22 as Venezuela looked ready to formally offer him political asylum this week.

The NSA whistleblower may receive a temporary travel document to fly to Caracas but then face the logistical nightmare of having no route into exile that is beyond the reach American's long arm of justice.

Russia is keen for Venezuela to offer him asylum, and bid farewell to a man who has been holed up in the transit zone of a Moscow airport for two weeks.

'He needs to choose a place to go,' insisted deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov.

But sources say Snowden will not be allowed to board the only Aeroflot plane that offers direct connections to Caracas, a regular service to Cuban capital Havana.

The routing overflies both the EU and the US and there are fears the plane will be denied rights to Western airspace, and forced to land, leading to Snowden's arrest.

The direct distance from Moscow to Caracas is 6,175 miles but last night it appeared too far for Snowden.

Indeed, unless Russian secret services actively connive with his escape by a clandestine route, it is looking hard to see how he can flee Russia.

'Venezuela is waiting for an answer from Snowden. This, perhaps, is his last chance to receive political asylum,' said Russian MP Alexei Pushkov, seen as close to the Kremlin.

Otherwise his only option would be to remain in Russia and accept glamorous spy Anna Chapman's offer to marry him, he joked.

Venezuela president Nicolas Maduro has vowed to grant asylum to Snowden, to protect him 'from the global persecution of the empire', meaning the US.

With Russia getting publicly impatient with the US whistleblower's presence in its transit zone, his escape route is a logistical nightmare.

'Instead of going west to Venezuela, his obvious option is east to Vladivostok and then across the Pacific to Caracas,' said one source.

It would mean Russia allowing him to formally enter its territory, which so far it has refused to do, unwilling to upset the US.

This would also involve a 14,200 mile detour and a routing that would bring him close to the US state of Hawaii posing a risk to any private plane willing to take him on a route where there are no scheduled services.

'The only solution is to smuggle him on board a military or diplomatic plane, but even then the US last week managed to ground the president of Bolivia's plane when they thought Snowden was on board,' said another source.

President Evo Morales was subject to an humiliating delay at Vienna after his jet was refused permission to overfly the airspace of France, Portugal, Italy and Spain.

The Bolivian leader has since offered Snowden asylum as has Nicaragua.