Yeah so many people talk about Snowden going to Russia and ignore the fact that he was only in Russia transferring to another plane when his passport was cancelled stranding him there. The choice was basically stay there, or go back to the US, and that wasn’t really an option.

Why the US would want to leave him in Russia as a potential asset for Russian intelligence to break instead of letting him get to a different country that isn’t such a direct threat though is a really good question.