[Departed7405]

I agree. What people forget is Snowden didn't intend to end up in Russia. He wanted to go from Hong Kong (where he tought he would be safe, but realised extradition still was an option) to Ecuador. But he feared US would intercept his plane if he went over US/US allies sky. So his plan was to go from HK to Russia, then to Cuba and finally Ecuador.

Russia stopped him because US had cancelled his passport.

[veidr]

That fear proved well-grounded. While it probably doesn't seem as big of a deal now — in this era when we just serially assassinate heads of state we don't like without any pretense otherwise — the US indeed did direct its European allies to intercept the plane of Bolivian president Evo Morales, based on the (incorrect, as it turned out) suspicion that Snowden was on board.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales_grounding_incident