At this point why bother? He was in Russia 7 years when he finally applied and got a passport, his (now) wife was pregnant, it was the height of COVID.
Russia has also shown that they're not interfering with him as long as he doesn't speak about anything Russia is doing.
Contrast that with his destination countries that he originally wanted to go to, all of which are also of course "enemies of the US" (which is the only reason he's safe there), one of which has been strongarmed by the US directly (Bolivian prime minister forced to land and be searched, breaking international law[0]) and one of which has already permitted one of it's refugees to be captured on sovereign soil.
I should also add that a lot of countries would not grant asylum to a person who is in what they would consider a safe country. I know for instance it's a point of much contention in the UK that an asylum seeker must stop in the first safe country.
Additionally, since Putin's "special military action" (invasion of another sovereign country) there actually are a lot of restrictions for Russian citizens travelling, both outbound and inbound. -- and even if you manage to wave away all of that: he isn't in a better position anywhere else and he still has to travel over US Allied countries to get there.
That's a completely different topic, separated by 7 years.
Back to what you said:
> those stories about him "being stranded" are bullshit
He really really was stranded. He had no passport, and the only place he could go without one would send him directly to prison without even a right to raise his defence of "public good" in his trial.
So unless you're saying "he wasn't stranded, he could choose to go to prison forever", that's not really true.
And as we later found out, the US would force even diplomatic planes to land and be searched for Snowden.
Sweden was playing US lapdog with Assange, so presumably would be the case for Finland too, even if not NATO at the time.
Russia has also shown that they're not interfering with him as long as he doesn't speak about anything Russia is doing.
Contrast that with his destination countries that he originally wanted to go to, all of which are also of course "enemies of the US" (which is the only reason he's safe there), one of which has been strongarmed by the US directly (Bolivian prime minister forced to land and be searched, breaking international law[0]) and one of which has already permitted one of it's refugees to be captured on sovereign soil.
I should also add that a lot of countries would not grant asylum to a person who is in what they would consider a safe country. I know for instance it's a point of much contention in the UK that an asylum seeker must stop in the first safe country.
Additionally, since Putin's "special military action" (invasion of another sovereign country) there actually are a lot of restrictions for Russian citizens travelling, both outbound and inbound. -- and even if you manage to wave away all of that: he isn't in a better position anywhere else and he still has to travel over US Allied countries to get there.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales_grounding_incident