>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.

>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. Life in prison is losing your life - it's just a much slower execution than the traditional methods. There is no parole in the federal system; life is life. > That's a complete fantasy. It's not a fantasy of mine. But I do believe that governments do things for their own purposes, and could care less if one more American spends the rest of their life in prison. If and when it becomes politically convenient or necessary, they'll simply revoke his asylum and deport him. 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? The DOJ would never offer a deal for 5 or even 20 years, because it would undermine the message they want to send to others contemplating similar actions. If he sets foot in the US, voluntarily or not, he's going down for life.