Julian Assange May 2017, the Swedish authorities dropped their investigation against Assange, claiming they could not expect the Ecuadorian Embassy to communicate reliably with Assange with respect to the case. Chief prosecutor Marianne Ny officially revoked his arrest warrant, but said the investigation could still be resumed if Assange visited Sweden before August 2020. "We are not making any pronouncement about guilt", she said. On 19 June 2012, Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño announced that Assange had applied for political asylum, that his government was considering the request, and that Assange was at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Wikileaks insiders stated that
Julian Assange readers' choice award for person of the year, the "Time" readers' choice award for person of the year (he was also a runner-up in "Time's" overall person of the year award), a deal for his autobiography worth at least US$1.3 million, and selection by the Italian edition of "Rolling Stone" as "rockstar of the year". Assange announced that he would run for the Australian Senate in March 2012 under the new WikiLeaks Party, and "Cypherpunks" was published in November. In 2012, Assange hosted a television show on RT (formerly known as Russia Today), a network funded by the Russian government.