re: Edward Snowden requests asylum from Russia. Have you changed your mind?

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But if he was only going to share our domestic programs, why did he choose to flee to Hong Kong, then Russia? Why not somewhere like Switzerland?

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The thing is, he is being charged by our government under the Espionage Act. Only like 5 or 6 people have ever been charged under that law, even though it has been around for decades, and all but one or two of them have been charged by the current administration.

Fleeing to a country who has an extradition treaty with the U.S. would be a huge gamble for him. He would likely be the first person in history charged under the Espionage Act to flee to Switzerland or Sweden or some other "neutral" country. There is no precedent on how their government would handle the extradition issue.

So then, he is left with a pretty limited array of options. There are only a handful of places he could go where he knows he won't be extradited. Russia and China are two of those places.