Putin: U.S. has refused extradition deal for Snowden

MOSCOW, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- The United States has refused to make an "extradition deal" to trade fugitive Edward Snowden for Russian criminals, President Vladimir Putin said Friday.

Putin said Snowden, 30, a former computer specialist and contract employee for the National Security Agency, has been charged with "ephemeral crimes," RIA Novosti reported. He told reporters in St. Petersburg that Snowden has also not been convicted of anything.

"We said, give us the criminals on your territory, those who committed not some ephemeral crime connected to dissemination of information, but crimes against individuals such as murder and abduction," Putin said.

Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama are both in St. Petersburg for the Group of 20 summit at a time when relations between the two countries are frosty.

A Russian prosecutor said in August that the United States had turned down five extradition requests in recent years. Snowden, who first fled to Hong Kong, spent weeks in a transit area at the Moscow airport before being granted temporary refuge in Russia.