The United States is “disappointed” now that Russia has granted a year’s worth of asylum to Edward Snowden, the fugitive US intelligence employee who made off with trove of American intelligence secrets.

The 30-year old Snowden left Sheremetyevo Airport after getting his documents according to his Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena.  Snowden is staying at an undisclosed for the time being.

Even though Russian president Vladimir Putin said Snowden must stop leaking information if he was to get asylum, another bombshell was revealed:  The US has provided almost A$170 million in secret funding for the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the British version of the electronic spying agency.

The move is threatening to pour cold water all over a planned meeting of President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of September’s G20 meeting in Saint Petersburg.

In a statement, Snowden thanked Russia and accused his native United States of showing “no respect” for international law.

The US wants Snowden to face multiple espionage charges for revealing secret information showing the vast scale of surveillance and abilities of his former employers in the National Security Agency; in a nutshell, his revelations seem to show that the US can either tap or track the activity of almost any phone, and eavesdrop into most email communications.