Russia is treading gently to preserve amicable relations with the US. (E.g., Putin: "If he wants to stay here, there is one condition: He must stop his activiti

Russia is treading gently to preserve amicable relations with the US. (E.g., Putin: "If he wants to stay here, there is one condition: He must stop his activities aimed at inflicting damage on our American partners, no matter how strange it may sound coming from my lips.") The leaks embarrass a lot of countries that Russia does not mind seeing embarrassed, but they don't want to be seen as sponsoring it. The public relations would be messy if evidence of Russia interrogating him leaked while they were publicly insisting that they had no contact. If interrogation occurred, it would be great for the US government to see that information leak (because it would make Russia look bad and make Snowden and WikiLeak's decision to route through Russia look bad). Relative to someone like Gordievsky, I think the likelihood of evidence of an interrogation leaking eventually (via Snowden and people near him or by an internal leak) would be uncomfortably high. Meanwhile, we know that there are double agents in the intelligence agencies of both countries, so it's likely that Russia already has most of this information. Edit: Meanwhile, it's entirely possible that Snowden has encrypted everything important on those laptops using a key that he is not carrying with him. Additionally, the narrative of Russia interrogating Snowden or otherwise stealing his data is so attractive to the US government that I would not be surprised if they would take steps to manufacture that story. The political motivations here should make journalists doubly cautious about accepting anonymous tips.