That's speculation.

The pilot requested assistance and permission to land due to problems with fuel indicator. You can listen to the radio exchange in the link below.

http://audioboo.fm/boos/1482009-bolivia-air-force-fuerza-aer...

That's so strange, the FM expressed displeasure towrads the actions of Portugal and France in quotes from the AP. I wonder if it was simply an excuse the pilot used to not make things more complicated at that point.

That link doesn't work.

Interesting, the original AP tweet has now been deleted. A new tweet [1] and article [2] have now been posted.

[1] https://twitter.com/AP/status/352193921415254016

[2] http://bigstory.ap.org/article/bolivian-leaders-plane-rerout...

"Sorry, that page doesn’t exist!" What did it say?

"Bolivian minister says Evo Morales' plane was rerouted to Austria on suspicion that Snowden was on board."

Here's the story on NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/07/02/world/americas/ap...

That could be a pretty smart play. Spread rumors that he's on a plane to see what the reaction would be. If he wasn't on the plane, he now knows that whatever plane he does get on, he can't fly over France.

The best way out is probably to be smuggled via cargo container from the current Russian airport to a seagoing vessel on its way to South America.

Why does he actually need to get out of Russia?

Because they aren't going to grant him asylum, and if he doesn't find a way out he's going to be stuck in the airport for a long time.

Ok. That's odd, I thought Putin had made statements about wanting to protect him. If even Russia doesn't have his back I think it's time for an identity change.