>I imagine that eventually Snowden will wind up serving a life sentence in the underground supermax facility in Florence, Colorado whether he comes voluntarily

>I imagine that eventually Snowden will wind up serving a life sentence in the underground supermax facility in Florence, Colorado whether he comes voluntarily or not - Russia will eventually use him as a bargaining chip in some trade negotiation, and that will be the end of him. I think it's wrong, but that outcome is almost inevitable at some point. That's a complete fantasy. Snowden will never be used as a bargaining chip. It would send a terrible message to people who are currently spying for Russia and might have to escape to Russia at some point (and I'm not saying that Snowden is a Russian spy.) Don't you think that US already offered Russia a ton of deals for Snowden? They turned them down because it would severely damage Russia's reputation. It's really a non-starter. Diplomats won't even waste time trying to negotiate extradition anymore because it's pointless. Another refrain that I hear is "if Putin is deposed and a new West-friendly government is installed, they will extradite Snowden". Again, zero chance of that happening. Even if new Russian gov becomes best friends with US, Snowden will not be extradited for the same reasons explained above. And by the way, if the roles were reversed and some Russian leaker managed to escape to the US, there would be exactly zero chance that US would ever extradite them back to Russia. That's why Russia will never extradite him either. >Obama will not pardon him, and I don't think either of the presumptive presidential nominees are big Snowden fans. I completely agree with this point. There's about 1-5% chance that Obama will pardon him. Obama has prosecuted more leakers than anyone else in history. Also, pardoning Snowden would send a horrible message to potential future 'Snowdens'. Whole intelligence community would revolt if he was to get a presidential pardon. >and he will eventually pay for that damage with his life. Again, extremely low chance of that happening. US and Russia have a gentleman's agreement that they will not kill each others' spies and traitors who escaped. If Snowden is ever offered a deal by DoJ, it will have to involve jail time. Say they offer him 5 years in a low-security prison, would he take it? Of course not. He is with his common law wife and will probably end up having children. A deal that hinges on him spending years in prison is not something he will ever take. Gen Hayden believes that Snowden will forever remain in Russia and when he dies, it will be of natural causes or old age. I completely agree with him. Snowden will never set foot on US soil again.