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The Question of When | 165

under horrific conditions for over a year while awaiting his trial and
was facing a long prison sentence. There was no reason for Snowden
to expect a better outcome for himself if he returned to the United
States or was arrested anywhere else that had an extradition treaty
with the United States. As the Russian officials in Hong Kong would
have informed him, Russia had no extradition treaty with the United
States. It was also one of the few places in the world that he could
reach from Hong Kong without flying through airspace in which he
might be intercepted by a U.S. ally. Snowden was told he could take
the direct Aeroflot flight to Moscow without a valid passport or visa.
That Snowden’s alternative to going to Russia was going to prison
gave the Russians considerable leverage in Hong Kong. The Rus-
sian “diplomats” could have used this leverage to extract a quid pro
quo. The price of admission might have meant putting himself in the
hands of Russian intelligence and telling it all he knew.

The Moscow Scenario

The final possibility is that Snowden did not come under Russian
control until after he arrived in Moscow. After assessing the nega-
tive attitude that Snowden expressed toward government authority
on the video that was released by The Guardian, the Russian “diplo-
mats” in Hong Kong might have concluded that Snowden could bolt
if too much pressure was exerted on him there. The Russians could
afford to be patient. They knew that Interpol and the United States
would be pursuing Snowden throughout the world and that he had
no valid travel documents and that his credit cards had been frozen.
They would likely know that Sarah Harrison had arranged his flight
to Moscow on June 23. So they had no urgent need to apply pressure
on him before his plane landed in Russia.
After the Russians took him in a “special operation” from the
plane at the airport, he was informed by Russian authorities that
he would not be allowed to go to Cuba, Venezuela, Iceland, Ecuador,
or any other country without the permission of Russian officials,
which would not be immediately forthcoming. He was now at the

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