Newly Published Files Confirm Plan to Move Assange to Russia
By Raphael Satter, AP Cybersecurity Writer
October 17, 2018 "Information Clearing House" - Newly released Ecuadorean government documents have laid bare an unorthodox attempt to extricate the WikiLeaks founder from his embassy hideaway in London by naming him as a political counselor to the country's embassy in Moscow.
But the 47-year-old Australian's new career in international affairs was nipped in the bud when British authorities vetoed his diplomatic status, effectively blocking him from taking up his new post in Russia.
The files were made public late Tuesday by Ecuadorean opposition lawmaker Paola Vintimilla, who opposes her government's decision to grant Assange nationality. They largely corroborate a recent Guardian newspaper report that Ecuador attempted the elaborate maneuver just before Christmas last year.
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Russian diplomats called the story "fake news," but the files show Assange was briefly named "political counselor" to the Ecuadorean Embassy in Moscow with a monthly salary pegged at $2,000. Ecuador even went so far as to apply for a diplomatic ID card, the documents show, but the plan appears to have fallen apart with the British veto.
A letter dated December 21, 2017 from Britain's Foreign Office says U.K. officials "do not consider Mr. Julian Assange to be an acceptable member of the mission."
An eight-page memo written to Vintimilla summing up the whole episode notes that Assange's position as counselor was scrapped a few days later.
WikiLeaks did not immediately return messages. The British Foreign Office and the Russian Embassy in London declined to comment.
See - The Ecuadorean government's letter to Vintimilla: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5004881-Carta-Canciller.html
Raphael Satter can be reached on: http://raphaelsatter.com
This article was originally published by "ABC News" -
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