Russia invaded Georgia (an US ally) not long ago, pulverizing the equipment of the Georgian military (which largely came from the US) and seizing much of its te

Russia invaded Georgia (an US ally) not long ago, pulverizing the equipment of the Georgian military (which largely came from the US) and seizing much of its territory. It was a major victory for Putin, which undermined America's Russia containment strategy (which was to surround Russia with well-armed NATO allies). He basically played chicken with the US, risking a war.. and won. Putin is a horrible guy but afraid of the US or "emasculated" he certainly isn't. Putin simply has no interest in helping Snowden. Remember that Putin openly supported totalitarian surveillance schemes like PRISM: http://reason.com/24-7/2013/06/13/putin-supports-united-states-surveillanc http://reason.com/24-7/2013/06/13/putin-supports-united-stat...