Updated 6:50 a.m. ET 
 
 WASHINGTON The bizarre journey of Edward Snowden is far from over. After spending a night in Moscow's airport, the former National Security Agency contractor and admitted leaker of U.S. state secrets was expected to fly to Cuba and Venezuela en route to possible asylum in Ecuador. 
 
 But the U.S. says Moscow should hand Snowden over to Washington. 
 
 Edward Snowden on the run, reportedly in Russia Russia and China OK with defying Obama on Snowden Kerry: "Serious consequences" if Snowden boards plane from Russia 
 
 Multiple reports say Snowden wasn't on an Aeroflot flight from Moscow to Havana Monday that earlier reports indicated he'd be on. 
 
 Snowden, also a former CIA technician, fled Hong Kong on Sunday to dodge U.S. efforts to extradite him on espionage charges. Ecuador's Foreign Minister, Ricardo Patino, said his government had received an asylum request. He added Monday that Ecuador's decision about the request involves "freedom of expression and ... the security of citizens around the world." He did not say how long it would take Ecuador to decide. 
 
 The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks has said it was helping Snowden. 
 
 Ecuador has rejected the United States' previous efforts at cooperation, and has been helping WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange avoid prosecution by allowing him to stay at its embassy in London. 
 
 Snowden was on a flight from Hong Kong that arrived in Moscow Sunday and was booked on a flight to Cuba Monday, the Russian news agencies ITAR-Tass and Interfax reported, citing unnamed airline officials. 
 
 Patino said, "We know that he's currently in Moscow, and we are ... in touch with the highest authorities of Russia." 
 
 The NSC issued a statement early Monday saying it is "disappointed by the decision of the authorities in Hong Kong to permit Mr. Snowden to flee despite the legally valid U.S. request to arrest him for purposes of his extradition under the U.S.-Hong Kong Surrender Agreement. We have registered our strong objections to the authorities in Hong Kong as well as to the Chinese government through diplomatic channels and noted that such behavior is detrimental to U.S.-Hong Kong and U.S.-China bilateral relations." 
 
 The statement continued, "We now understand Mr. Snowden is on Russian soil. Given our intensified cooperation after the Boston marathon bombings and our history of working with Russia on law enforcement matters -- including returning numerous high level criminals back to Russia at the request of the Russian government -- we expect the Russian Government to look at all options available to expel Mr. Snowden back to the U.S. to face justice for the crimes with which he is charged." 
 
 At a news conference in New Delhi, India Monday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Moscow should send Snowden back to the U.S. but, "Historically, there are some countries that just play outside of that process." 
 
 Kerry said it would be "very disappointing" if China and Russia allowed Snowden to fly, and there would undoubtedly be "an impact on our relations." 
 
 Kerry added that Snowden "places himself above the law, having betrayed his country." 
 
 The Reuters news agency quotes a spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin as saying the Kremlin doesn't know of any contact between Snowden and Russian authorities. Reuters says Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the U.S. calls for Russia to expel Snowden. 
 
 A senior administration official told CBS News, "Mr. Snowden's claim that he is focused on supporting transparency, freedom of the press and protection of individual rights and democracy is belied by the protectors he has potentially chosen: China, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela and Ecuador. His failure to criticize these regimes suggests that his true motive throughout has been to injure the national security of the U.S., not to advance internet freedom and free speech." 
 
 Snowden gave documents to The Guardian and The Washington Post newspapers disclosing U.S. surveillance programs that collect vast amounts of phone records and online data in the name of foreign intelligence, often sweeping up information on American citizens. Officials have the ability to collect phone and Internet information broadly, but need a warrant to examine specific cases where they believe terrorism is involved. 
 
 Snowden had been in hiding for several weeks in Hong Kong, a former British colony with a high degree of autonomy from mainland China. The United States formally sought Snowden's extradition from Hong Kong to face espionage charges but was rebuffed; Hong Kong officials said the U.S. request did not fully comply with its laws. 
 
 The Justice Department rejected that claim, saying its request met all of the requirements of the extradition treaty between the U.S. and Hong Kong. During conversations last week, including a phone call Wednesday between Attorney General Eric Holder and Hong Kong Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen, Hong Kong officials never raised any issues regarding sufficiency of the U.S. request, a Justice representative said. 
 
 The United States was in touch through diplomatic and law enforcement channels with countries that Snowden could travel through or to, reminding them that Snowden is wanted on criminal charges and reiterating Washington's position that Snowden should only be permitted to travel back to the U.S., a State Department official said. Snowden's U.S. passport has been revoked. 
 
 U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the case. 
 
 An unidentified Aeroflot airline official was cited by Russia's state ITAR-Tass news agency and Interfax as saying Snowden was on the plane that landed Sunday afternoon in Moscow. The Russian report said Snowden intended to fly to Cuba on Monday and then on to Caracas, Venezuela. 
 
 The White House was hoping to stop Snowden before he left Moscow. 
 
 Still, the United States is likely to have problems interrupting Snowden's passage. The United States does not have an extradition treaty with Russia, but does with Cuba, Venezuela and Ecuador. Even with an extradition agreement though, any country could give Snowden a political exemption. 
 
 The likelihood that any of these countries would stop Snowden from traveling on to Ecuador seemed remote. While diplomatic tensions have thawed in recent years, Cuba and the United States are hardly allies after a half-century of distrust. Another country that could see Snowden pass through, Venezuela, could prove difficult, as well. Former President Hugo Chavez was a sworn enemy of the United States and his successor, Nicolas Maduro, earlier this year called President Obama the "grand chief of devils." The two countries do not exchange ambassadors. 
 
 Snowden's options aren't numerous, said Assange's lawyer, Michael Ratner. 
 
 "You have to have a country that's going to stand up to the United States," Ratner said. "You're not talking about a huge range of countries here." 
 
 It also wasn't clear Snowden was finished disclosing highly classified information. 
 
 Snowden has perhaps more than 200 sensitive documents, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on CBS' "Face the Nation." ||||| A picture of Edward Snowden, a contractor at the National Security Agency (NSA), is seen on a computer screen displaying a page of a Chinese news website, in Beijing in this June 13, 2013 photo illustration. 
 
 MOSCOW Former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden got stuck in the transit zone of a Moscow airport because Havana said it would not let him fly from Russia to Cuba, a Russian newspaper reported on Monday. 
 
 Snowden, who is wanted in the United States for leaking details of U.S. government surveillance programs, had planned to fly to Havana from Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport a day after arriving from Hong Kong on June 23. 
 
 But Snowden, who eventually accepted a year's asylum in Russia after spending nearly six weeks at Sheremetyevo, did not show up for the flight although he had been allocated a seat. 
 
 Citing several sources, including one close to the U.S. State Department, Kommersant newspaper said the reason was that at the last minute Cuba told officials to stop Snowden from boarding the Aeroflot flight. 
 
 It said Cuba had changed its mind after pressure by the United States, which wants to try Snowden on espionage charges. 
 
 Kommersant also said Snowden had spent a couple of days in the Russian consulate in Hong Kong to declare his intention of flying to Latin America via Moscow. 
 
 "His choice of route and his plea to help were a complete surprise to us. We did not invite him," Kommersant quoted a Russian state source as saying. 
 
 Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Allowing Snowden to land would have put Cuba's relations with the United States at risk. 
 
 Ties between the United States and Russia were strained when Moscow granted Snowden asylum. Following the disagreement over Snowden, U.S. President Barack Obama postponed a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin planned for next month. 
 
 (Reporting by Katya Golubkova, editing by Elizabeth Piper and Timothy Heritage) ||||| Russia's Foreign Ministry building, back, looms over one of the Kremlin's towers in central Moscow. (Photo: Alexander Nemenov, AFP/Getty) Story Highlights National Security Agency leaker Snowden has been in Russia since Sunday 
 
 He could be seeking political asylum in Ecuador 
 
 U.S. wants Russia to extradite him 
 
 MOSCOW — NSA leaker Edward Snowden remained in hiding Wednesday though a hint of his escape plans emerged when the Ecuadorean Embassy asked the United States why it should not grant him political asylum. 
 
 Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport was full of media looking for Snowden, the subject of an extradition request by the United States on a charge of espionage. 
 
 Russian President Vladimir Putin said Snowden has been in the airport since his arrival from Hong Kong on Sunday. He said Snowden is in a transit area of the airport that is not technically Russian soil, so Russia cannot honor the U.S. extradition request. 
 
 The government of Ecuador said Wednesday it is considering granting asylum to Snowden and has asked the United States to submit any objections in writing. 
 
 Snowden's request will be "reviewed responsibly," said Efrain Baus, the deputy chief of mission at Ecuador's Embassy in Washington. "The government of Ecuador has requested that the U.S. submit its position regarding this applicant in writing so that it can be taken into consideration as part of our thorough review process." 
 
 Edward Snowden: Extradition depends on politics 
 
 Before leaving Hong Kong, Snowden was given "a refugee document of passage" by Ecuadorean diplomats, according to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is coordinating assistance for Snowden from the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. Assange himself is hiding in the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning on rape accusations against him. 
 
 In a statement posted to the embassy website, Baus said Ecuador receives many asylum requests each year and the legal basis for each request "must be rigorously established" in accordance with the Ecuadorean constitution, the international legal framework and human rights. 
 
 RIA Novosti, a Russian news agency, reported that Snowden had booked two tickets for flights from Moscow to Havana on June 24 and 25 but did not board either flight. If he has not been able to extend his transit visa — assuming he has one and that it is valid for three days — it may be about to expire. 
 
 It is not clear what his legal travel status would be if his three-day transit visa granted by Russia expired. The United States has revoked his passport and wants Russia to honor an extradition request. 
 
 Former ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said Putin's claim that Snowden did not technically cross into Russia is preposterous. Bolton, who served under President George W. Bush, said Snowden entered Russia as soon as his plane crossed Russian airspace. 
 
 "Russia could've pulled him off the plane when he arrived," Bolton told Fox News. 
 
 He said the only reason Russia is allowing him to remain is so it can gain full access to the computer records Snowden says he stole from his former contractor job for the National Security Agency, records he says detail secret NSA surveillance programs and their targets. Snowden claims he stole the records because the programs are illegal and improper. 
 
 The White House says the programs scoured phone calls and websites searching for patterns that would lead to communication among terrorists. It says that the programs are legal and overseen by the courts and Congress and that they have successfully disrupted terrorist plots. 
 
 "Cancelling Snowden's passport and bullying intermediary countries may keep Snowden permanently in Russia. Not the brightest bunch at State," WikiLeaks said on its Twitter feed late Tuesday. 
 
 Contributing: Kim Hjelmgaard in London. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/12jp1bi ||||| MOSCOW When an Aeroflot plane from Moscow took an unusually southerly course to Havana on Thursday, it quickly triggered speculation that American fugitive Edward Snowden could be on board. 
 
 But the plane was probably just avoiding turbulence, like other aircraft that crossed the Atlantic yesterday. There was no sign of Snowden on arrival - he remained at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow, where he was to meet human rights groups on Friday. 
 
 Still, aviation experts said such speculation is not without merit. Due to protections offered by international aviation rules, a commercial flight may be Snowden's best bet for a ticket to asylum, trumping private jets or government planes. 
 
 Commercial carriers have the freedom to use airspace of other countries, known as the First Freedom of the air, the centerpiece of a complex but well-established system that keeps global air transportation running smoothly. 
 
 "One of the principles of the Chicago Convention system is that commercial carriers have the right of overflight, or the right to do things like stop for fuel, without seeking permission from the country over which they are flying," said aviation lawyer Simon Phippard of UK-based law firm Bird & Bird. 
 
 Government aircraft, on the other hand, technically need permission before they can legally enter a foreign country's airspace. Any doubts that U.S. allies would bar Snowden's way ended last week when several European countries barred Bolivian President Evo Morales' plane from entering their airspace when he was travelling home from Moscow. 
 
 Snowden, a former spy agency contractor, is wanted by Washington for leaking top-secret U.S. surveillance programs. Morales said he was refused entry because of suspicions that Snowden was on board, though aviation lawyers said a country does not need any reason other than exerting its sovereignty to deny another government's plane. 
 
 "Every state on the basis of state sovereignty has the right to deny overflight to state aircraft," said John Mulligan, a research fellow at the International Aviation Law Institute at DePaul University in Chicago. 
 
 The legal grounds for preventing a private charter plane, such as a business jet, from entering a country's airspace are more complex and open to a patchwork of different rules and interpretations, but legal experts agree it would be harder to stop a commercial flight than a state or private plane. 
 
 SNOWDEN'S CONUNDRUM 
 
 Russia has grown impatient about Snowden's stay in transit at Sheremetyevo airport, and likely wants him gone before Moscow hosts a meeting of finance ministers from the Group of 20 nations next week. 
 
 But any flight that takes Snowden through U.S. skies, or those of an ally, is fraught with risk, no matter what the international aviation rules say. 
 
 Although President Barack Obama said in June said he is "not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker," U.S. officials say Washington has warned countries that there would be "consequences" if they let Snowden land or pass through without turning him over to U.S. authorities. 
 
 There are no direct commercial flights from Moscow to Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia, the three Latin American countries that have offered Snowden asylum. The most obvious route is through Havana but Cuba has not said whether it would allow him to pass through. 
 
 Snowden had planned to take a flight to Havana with Aeroflot on June 24, less than 24 hours after his arrival in Moscow, sparking a frenzy of international media demand for tickets on the flight. But airport sources said he pulled out at the last minute, probably because the lane usually flies over the United States. 
 
 Assisted by the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy group, Snowden could be looking for flights that hop from one country that is ideologically opposed to the United States to another. 
 
 Most long-haul commercial flights heading west from Moscow go over at least one European country. A potential option is a commercial flight to Tehran. He could then try to reach an African country such as Sudan or Angola, which might be ready to risk U.S. wrath. But there are no direct flights from Iran to either country. 
 
 Snowden could look at flights east to Shanghai, Beijing, Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City, but they involve flying over countries that might object, and China has shown no interest in harboring him. 
 
 A private charter with a specially tailored route could take him north over the Arctic and then south over the Atlantic, avoiding U.S. and its allies' airspace. A former CIA analyst quoted by Foreign Policy magazine referred to this as the "scenic route" and estimated the journey at 11,000 km. 
 
 But where would the plane refuel, who would foot the potentially huge bill and where would Snowden get such a plane? There are no obvious answers. 
 
 The longest-range business jet in the world, according to its manufacturers, is the Gulfstream G550, made by a unit of General Dynamics. Its brochure boasts a range of 6,750 nautical miles but that could be shortened by the need to leave spare fuel for emergencies, especially when travelling over long stretches of ocean. 
 
 Private charters from Moscow to Caracas are advertised for about 100,000 euros without counting the extra mileage needed to thread his way between unfriendly airspace. 
 
 BOAT OR TRAIN? 
 
 Snowden might yet opt for a less obvious means of transport, perhaps heading northwest from Moscow by boat or taking the Trans-Siberian Express train across Russia towards Asia. There is virtually no trade between Russia and Venezuela, so hopping on a merchant ship is hardly likely to be an option, though. 
 
 Such trips would be slow, leaving him vulnerable, and involve leaving the precincts of the transit zone and formally stepping on Russian soil, something Moscow has made clear it wants to avoid. 
 
 Some Russian sources have suggested a foreign embassy car would not be considered Russian territory, opening up the possibility of a road trip across Russia. Where he might go is unclear but Belarus is in striking distance and has antagonistic relations with the United States. 
 
 Both Snowden and Russian authorities will want to avoid repeating the fate of Iranian refugee Mehran Karimi Nasseri, who spent about 18 years in Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport. His experience inspired the Tom Hanks film "The Terminal," which was shown on Russian satellite television this week. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Jane Wardell in Sydney, Tim Hepher in Paris, Alwyn Scott in New York, David Ingram in Washington and Marc Frank in Havana; Editing by Tiffany Wu and Ralph Boulton) ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Daniel Sandford reports on the lawyer with a bag who intrigued journalists at Moscow Airport on Wednesday 
 
 Fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden has not been given Russian travel documents, his lawyer has said, contradicting earlier reports. 
 
 Anatoly Kucherena told reporters his client would remain in the transit zone at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, where he has been for the past month. 
 
 Earlier, airport officials said that Mr Kucherena had given Mr Snowden the travel documents. 
 
 The US wants him extradited for leaking details of surveillance programmes. 
 
 Russian President Vladimir Putin has refused to hand him to the American authorities, but said he could stay in Russia only if he stopped leaking US secrets. 
 
 'Studying Russian culture' 
 
 Mr Snowden, whose passport has been cancelled by the US, has stayed in the airport's transit area since arriving from Hong Kong on 23 June. 
 
 He has requested temporary asylum in Russia, and said recently his favoured final destination was Latin America. 
 
 Mr Kucherena visited his client at the airport on Wednesday and told a news conference later that the 30-year-old would not yet be leaving the airport. 
 
 He said the application for temporary asylum had not been processed, and no travel documents had been received. 
 
 "He is not planning to leave for now. He asked for temporary asylum, which in the case of a positive decision is granted for a term of one year," said Mr Kucherena. 
 
 The lawyer said Mr Snowden wanted to study Russian culture, adding that he had given the American books including Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. 
 
 Mr Kucherena said Mr Snowden was "anxious" about leaving the airport. 
 
 "I hope that this situation will be resolved in the nearest future," he said. "This is the first time Russia is facing such a situation, and this issue of course requires time for the immigration workers." 
 
 The lawyer's account contradicted that of airport officials, who earlier told local media that the lawyer had handed Mr Snowden the documents he needed to leave the airport. 
 
 Asylum offers 
 
 It was unclear whether there had been last-minute political intervention or some other problem. 
 
 The Interfax news agency quoted unnamed officials saying the American would be provided with new clothes before leaving the airport. 
 
 After the lawyer's news conference, the White House said it wanted clarity from Russia on his status. 
 
 Spokesman Jay Carney said Washington had already made it clear to Moscow that Mr Snowden should be handed over to face espionage charges. 
 
 The Snowden affair has caused diplomatic ructions around the world, upsetting America's close allies and traditional enemies. 
 
 Leaks by the former CIA worker have led to revelations that the US National Security Agency (NSA) is collecting Americans' phone records. 
 
 On Wednesday evening, an attempt to block funding for the programme narrowly failed in a 205-217 vote in the US House of Representatives. 
 
 The White House had lobbied Congress to support the surveillance. 
 
 Opponents of the US, including Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua, have all offered Mr Snowden asylum. ||||| This weekend NSA whistleblower/leaker Edward Snowden left a government safe house in Hong Kong and flew to Moscow, where he then booked a flight to Cuba. 
 
 A bunch of journalists booked seats on the same flight from Moscow to Havana. 
 
 Snowden didn't show. 
 
 — max seddon (@maxseddon) June 24, 2013 
 
 The Guardian put it this way: "Edward Snowden not on Aeroflot flight to Havana. But a bunch of reporters are. (Bad news for them: it's dry)." 
 
 On Sunday the 30-year-old ex-Booz Allen employee requested asylum in Ecuador and CNN reported that the U.S. revoked Snowden's passport at some point. 
 
 Now it looks like Russia, or Snowden (or WikiLeaks), pulled a fast one on everybody. 
 
 Before Snowden's no-show, Russian President Vladimir Putin's press secretary told Reuters: "Overall, we have no information about him." 
 
 Now Russia's Interfax news agency is reporting that former CIA technician is likely outside of Russia. 
 
 So almost no one knows where he is. 
 
 Journalists from around world embark on Moscow-Havana flight to "photograph an empty seat" via @caosnews pic.twitter.com/TL6BGR3NmF #Snowden — Jim Roberts (@nycjim) June 24, 2013 
 
 "The journalists stare at the message on their phones: 'I'm sorry, the princess is in another castle'" - pg. 82, of my Snowden screenplay — Hayes Brown (@HayesBrown) June 24, 2013 
 
 The most famous empty chair since Eastwood's. #Snowden pic.twitter.com/wrPjAKdbHz — ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) June 24, 2013 
 
 Snowden leaked the first concrete evidence of the NSA's domestic surveillance apparatus when he gave Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald “thousands” of documents. The documents have corroborated claims made by other whistleblowers. 
 
 On Friday the U.S. filed criminal espionage charges against the former NSA contractor, and has been trying to pressure countries hosting Snowden to turn him over. ||||| President Obama remarks on the situation with admitted NSA leaker Edward Snowden, saying he has no plans to disrupt relations with Russia and China, nor to scramble jets to capture the "29-year-old hacker." 
 
 President Obama said he should not have to speak personally with the leaders of Russia and China regarding self-professed NSA leaker Edward Snowden, and said he was “not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker” during a press conference in Senegal on Thursday. 
 
 The president was on the first leg of a trip to Africa when he struck the seemingly dismissive tone regarding the former defense contractor who claimed to have leaked details of two top-secret government data-gathering programs before initiating an international manhunt that has grown to involve the governments of China, Ecuador, and Russia. 
 
 Obama said that the revelations first published in British newspaper The Guardian and The Washington Post – and the ensuing search for Snowden, who has been charged with theft of government property and two offenses of espionage statutes – have the makings of a big-screen spy caper, but that he would not engage in “wheeling and dealing and trading and a whole host of other issues, simply to get a guy extradited so he can face the justice system here in the United States.” 
 
 Snowden, 30, is believed to still be hiding at a Moscow airport awaiting a ruling on his request for asylum from the government of Ecuador. Snowden flew to Russia from Hong Kong over the weekend but has not been seen since his arrival. Russian officials told Reuters that he remains in a transit area at Sheremetyevo airport. 
 
 He was not aboard an Aeroflot flight that departed Moscow to Havana on Thursday, the first stop on an anticipated escape route to the South American country. 
 
 “Now I get why it’s a fascinating story from a press perspective and I’m sure there will be a made-for-TV movie somewhere down the line,” Obama said, adding that “in terms of U.S. interests, the damage was done with respect to the initial leaks.” 
 
 Dolores Ochoa / AP A man reads a newspaper with the Spanish headline "Snowden stuck at Moscow airport" in Quito, Ecuador, on Wednesday. 
 
 Snowden’s case resolved “some pretty significant vulnerabilities” at the National Security Agency, Obama said. Snowden worked for defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton before being fired, and said in an interview with the South China Morning Post that he took the job to gain access to sensitive information. NBC News could not independently verify the report. 
 
 “There have been some useful conversations that have taken place between the United States government and the Russian government,” Obama said. “And my continued expectation is that Russia – there are other countries that have talked about potentially providing Mr. Snowden asylum – recognize that they are part of an international community and that they should be abiding by international law.” 
 
 The U.S. is worried that Snowden might have other documents in his possession that he may “dribble out,” Obama said. 
 
 “I continue to be concerned about the other documents that he may have. That’s part of the reason why we’d like to have Mr. Snowden in custody,” Obama said. “But what I think we’re going to continue to do is make sure that we are following the various channels that are well established and the rules that are well established to get this thing done.” 
 
 Ecuador’s communications minister said on Thursday that his country renounced hundreds of millions of dollars in trade tariff benefits, the Associated Press reported. Communications Minister Fernando Alvarez said the trade benefits being considered for renewal by U.S. lawmakers had become an “instrument of blackmail” as the country considered granting asylum to Snowden. 
 
 Ecuador “does not accept threats from anybody, and does not trade in principles, or submit to mercantile interests, as important as they may be,” Alvarez said, according to the AP. 
 
 In Washington, the head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has threatened to lead the effort to remove preferential trade treatment for Ecuadorian goods if the country decides to offer asylum to Snowden. 
 
 "Edward Snowden is a fugitive who has endangered the national security of the United States," Sen. Robert Menendez said in a statement released late on Wednesday. "Trade preferences are a privilege granted to nations, not a right. I urge [Ecuadorean] President Correa to do the right thing by the United States and Ecuador, and deny Snowden's request for asylum." 
 
 Hours later, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman told reporters the administration had accepted an industry petition to consider revoking Ecuador's benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences program. That petition actually pre-dates current tension between the two countries over Snowden. 
 
 In 2012, Ecuador exported some $5.4 billion worth of oil, $166 million of cut flowers, $122 million of fruits and vegetables and $80 million of tuna to the United States. 
 
 Menendez said he would lead efforts to stop the renewal of Ecuador's duty-free access to America markets under the Generalized System of Preferences program, which expires on July 31. He also said he'd try and block renewal of the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act, which also expires at the end of July. 
 
 The ongoing incident has also heightened tensions with China, as the country’s defense minister said that the U.S. Internet monitoring program revealed in documents leaked by Snowden “has revealed the concerned country’s true face and hypocritical behavior.” Defense ministry spokesman Yang Yujun did not explicitly name the United States in his comments, Reuters reported. 
 
 Also on Thursday, a government official in Switzerland said the country still has questions about Snowden's time working in Geneva as a CIA operative, Reuters reported. Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter said they received a "diplomatic" response from the U.S. to questions about Snowden's time in the country from 2007 and 2009, but "have decided to discuss these points further in the future with the Americans." 
 
 NBC News' Ghazi Balkiz and Reuters contributed to this report. 
 
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 This story was originally published on
– Edward Snowden spent the night in Moscow's airport and was expected to fly to Cuba today—but American authorities are making it clear that they'd prefer that the NSA whistleblower was enjoying their hospitality instead. In a statement, the National Security Council said it expects Moscow to look at "all options available to expel Mr. Snowden back to the US to face justice" especially in light of "intensified cooperation after the Boston Marathon bombings and our history of working with Russia on law enforcement matters," CBS reports. But "intensified cooperation" may not be coming: The Washington Post reports that a Russian official today told Interfax that Moscow doesn't have the legal authority to comply with the US government's request. Other officials add that air travelers who don't cross passport control aren't technically on Russian land; because Snowden is without a Russian visa, there's no way he could have gone through passport control. John Kerry is chiming in, adds the AP, calling it "deeply troubling" if Russia allows Snowden to flee. But is Snowden actually Cuba-bound? The airline Aeroflot told the AP he was booked on a Moscow-Havana flight this morning (the expectation being he'd then travel to Venezuela and then to Ecuador, where WikiLeaks says he will seek asylum), prompting a number of journalists to grab seats on said flight. But Snowden apparently never boarded, reports Business Insider via an article with this headline: "Russia Just Punked a Bunch of Journalists Who Are Now On Their Way to Havana." AP Moscow correspondent Max Seddon confirmed that there was no sign of Snowden, tweeting, "Cuba here we come. Taxiing down Sheremetevo runway and no sign of Snowden. Seats empty still by 17A." How did Snowden get out of Hong Kong yesterday to begin with? Despite the Chinese territory's autonomy, the final decision came from Beijing, sources tell the New York Times. The move lets China save face while avoiding a drawn-out extradition battle. Some legal experts are telling the New York Times the US government goofed in waiting until Saturday to revoke Snowden's passport, though charges were filed June 14. Says a former federal prosecutor, "They missed an opportunity to freeze him in place." Still, the Times notes that Snowden may have still been able to fly to Moscow sans passport thanks to special refugee travel documents from Ecuador that WikiLeaks helped Snowden obtain.