3.53pm BST

Anatoly Kucherena, the Russian lawyer advising Snowden, said that the NSA whistleblower is staying in the transit zone "for now" and "intends to stay in Russia, study Russian culture," AP reports. Kucherena said that migration officials are still looking at the asylum request and that the process had been drawn out.

Kucherena seems to have implied that Snowden, who withdrew a request for permanent asylum in Russia at the beginning of July, could remain in the country for good. It was assumed that applying for temporary asylum in Russia was a stop-gap before hopefully travelling on to South America (easier said than done), where Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela have said they would offer him asylum. Kucherena told Rossiya 24:

He is not planning to leave for now. He asked for temporary asylum, which in the case of a positive decision, is granted for a term of one year. Currently his final country of destination is Russia.

In comments to Russia Today, Kucherena said:

He’s planning to arrange his life here [Russia]. He [Snowden] plans to get a job. And, I think, that all his further decisions will be made considering the situation he found himself in.

Kucherena said he was talking to migration officials "on a daily basis".