American whistleblower Edward Snowden is stuck in Russia. It’s pretty unlikely he will be extradited as long as President Putin is calling the shots. Snowden’s extradition is a trump card Putin will hold off for some serious package deal in a very distant future. Which possibly never comes.
Firstly, Putin has a very strong sense of justice, in his particular Godfather way. Snowden struck a formidable blow to Putin’s enemies. Even if he’s not a spy, it’s only fair to keep the man out of harm’s way. What kind of signal would the extradition send to the enemies of America and friends of Russia?
I can only envision one purely theoretical scenario where Putin makes a sacrifice of Snowden. Think of some very high-level strategic transaction, something like President Trump ordering the withdrawal of American bases from Europe. How about a Russia-US Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation? So far, anything like this is pure alternative history.
It seems like everyone right now is comfortable with Snowden stuck where he is. It’s up to the defector to decide if he’s better off facing American justice than holed up in Moscow.