The United States on Friday warned Russia against giving fugitive leaker Edward Snowden a "propaganda platform" by letting him stay in the country.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said that such a move was not consistent with Moscow's assurances that it did not want the Snowden affair to harm U.S.-Russia relations.

Fugitive U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden on Friday told activists he wanted to claim asylum in Russia until he can travel on to Latin America, in his first encounter with the outside world since becoming marooned at a Moscow airport three weeks ago.

The dramatic meeting at Sheremetyevo airport with rights groups and lawyers appeared an attempt by Snowden to find a way out of an increasingly difficult situation as he seeks to escape U.S. espionage charges for leaking sensational details of widespread American surveillance activities.

Russia on Thursday accused Western nations of using "naive" allegations of chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian government to block a U.N. investigation into the use of the arms.

Russia's U.N. ambassador Vitaly Churkin angrily attacked Western members of the U.N. Security Council after it emerged that Moscow had blocked a draft resolution backing an investigation.

U.S. authorities have stopped pushing Russia to extradite U.S. leaker Edward Snowden, who has been holed up in a Moscow airport for almost three weeks, with the two sides now playing a waiting game, the Interfax news agency reported Thursday.

"Unlike in the first stage..., the Americans have stopped turning to the Russian side with some kind of request," a source familiar with the situation was quoted as saying by the agency.

A Russian state service in charge of safeguarding Kremlin communications is looking to purchase an array of old-fashioned typewriters to prevent leaks from computer hardware, sources said Thursday.

The throwback to the paper-strewn days of Soviet bureaucracy has reportedly been prompted by the publication of secret documents by anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks and the revelations leaked by former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

Russia's U.N. envoy said Tuesday he has handed over evidence to the United Nations which indicates Syrian rebels used sarin gas in an attack in March.

The envoy, Vitaly Churkin, said Russian experts had been to the scene of the attack at Khan al-Assal near Aleppo and had gathered firsthand evidence.

Russia on Tuesday urged "free and fair" elections in Egypt that would stabilize the restive country after the ouster of president Mohammed Morsi and continuing violent protests.

"We support all efforts directed at ending the violence and confrontation" and moving toward "transparent and inclusive ... free and fair elections," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni was due in Moscow on Tuesday for talks over Russia's plans to supply S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, army radio said.

During the visit, Livni, who also serves as Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians, was to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in a bid to convince Moscow not to go through with the promised delivery.

A journalist in Russia's restive Dagestan region was killed in a shooting Tuesday that investigators have linked to his professional work.

Akhmednabi Akhmednabiyev, a journalist with Novoye Delo newspaper based in Makhachkala was struck by "many shots" fired by an unidentified gunman early Tuesday and died on the spot in the outskirts of Makhachkala, Russia's Investigative Committee said in a statement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Sunday that the standoff in Egypt between supporters and foes of deposed president Mohamed Morsi threatened to degenerate into a civil war.

"Syria is already in the grips of a civil war, unfortunately enough, and Egypt is moving in that direction," Russian news agencies quoted Putin as saying while on a visit to Kazakhstan.