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." ||||| Russian President Vladimir Putin says that National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden is in the transit zone of a Moscow airport and will not be extradited to the United States. 
 
 Graphic shows the geographical career path and recent travels of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden; 3c x 5 inches; 146 mm x 127 mm; (Associated Press) 
 
 Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, left, greets passersby from the balcony of the presidential palace during the weekly, The Change of the Guard, in Quito, Ecuador, Monday, June 24, 2013. The Ecuadorian... (Associated Press) 
 
 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaks at a news conference in Moscow on Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Lavrov on Tuesday bluntly rejected U.S. demands to extradite National Security Agency leaker Edward... (Associated Press) 
 
 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaks at a news conference in Moscow on Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Lavrov on Tuesday bluntly rejected U.S. demands to extradite National Security Agency leaker Edward... (Associated Press) 
 
 White House press secretary Jay Carney pauses during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, Monday, June 24, 2013. Carney said the U.S. assumes that Edward Snowden is now in Russia... (Associated Press) 
 
 Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino speaks to reporters in Hanoi, Vietnam on Monday June 24, 2013. Patino said his country will act not on its interests but on its principles as it considers an... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this June 21, 2013 file photo, a banner supporting Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, is displayed at Central,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Light shines through a cabin window on seat 17A, the empty seat that an Aeroflot official said was booked in the name of former CIA technician Edward Snowden, during Aeroflot flight SU150 from Moscow... (Associated Press) 
 
 Putin said that Snowden hasn't crossed the Russian border and is free to go anywhere. 
 
 Speaking on a visit to Finland Tuesday, he added that Russian security agencies "didn't work and aren't working" with Snowden. He gave no more details. 
 
 Commenting on a U.S. request to extradite him, Putin said that Russia doesn't have an extradition agreement with the U.S. and thus wouldn't meet the U.S. request. 
 
 He voiced hope that Snowden will depart as quickly as possible and that his stopover at Moscow's airport wouldn't affect bilateral ties. 
 
 THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. 
 
 Russia's foreign minister bluntly rejected U.S. demands to extradite National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, saying Tuesday that Snowden hasn't crossed the Russian border. 
 
 Sergey Lavrov insisted that Russia has nothing to do with Snowden or his travel plans. Lavrov wouldn't say where Snowden is, but he lashed out angrily at Washington for demanding his extradition and warning of negative consequences if Moscow fails to comply. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has urged Moscow to "do the right thing" and turn over Snowden. 
 
 "We consider the attempts to accuse Russia of violating U.S. laws and even some sort of conspiracy, which on top of all that are accompanied by threats, as absolutely ungrounded and unacceptable," Lavrov said. "There are no legal grounds for such conduct by U.S. officials." 
 
 The defiant tone underlined the Kremlin's readiness to challenge Washington at a time when U.S.-Russian relations are strained over Syria and a Russian ban on adoptions by Americans. 
 
 U.S. and Ecuadorean officials said they believed Snowden was still in Russia. He fled there Sunday from Hong Kong, where he had been hiding out since his disclosure of the broad scope of two highly classified U.S. counterterror surveillance programs. The programs collect vast amounts of Americans' phone records and worldwide online data in the name of national security. 
 
 Kerry said Tuesday that although the United States does not have an extradition treaty with Russia, he called on Moscow to comply with common law practices between countries where fugitives are concerned. 
 
 "I would simply appeal for calm and reasonableness. We would hope that Russia would not side with someone who is `a fugitive' from justice,' " Kerry said at a news conference in Saudi Arabia. 
 
 Lavrov claimed that the Russian government found out about Snowden's flight from Hong Kong only from news reports. 
 
 "We have no relation to Mr. Snowden, his relations with American justice or his travels around the world," Lavrov said. "He chooses his route himself, and we have learned about it from the media." 
 
 Snowden booked a seat on a Havana-bound flight from Moscow on Monday en route to Venezuela and then possible asylum in Ecuador, but he didn't board the plane. Russian news media have reported that he has remained in a transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, but journalists there haven't seen him. 
 
 A representative of WikiLeaks has been traveling with Snowden, and the organization is believed to be assisting him in arranging asylum. The organization's founder, Julian Assange, said Monday that Snowden was only passing through Russia and had applied for asylum in Ecuador, Iceland and possibly other countries. 
 
 A high-ranking Ecuadorean official told The Associated Press that Russia and Ecuador were discussing where Snowden could go, saying the process could take days. He also said Ecuador's ambassador to Moscow had not seen or spoken to Snowden. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly. 
 
 Ecuador's foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, hailed Snowden on Monday as "a man attempting to bring light and transparency to facts that affect everyone's fundamental liberties." 
 
 He described the decision on whether to grant Snowden asylum as a choice between "betraying the citizens of the world or betraying certain powerful elites in a specific country." 
 
 State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the U.S. had made demands to "a series of governments," including Ecuador, that Snowden be barred from any international travel other than to be returned to the U.S. The U.S. has revoked Snowden's passport. 
 
 "We're following all the appropriate legal channels and working with various other countries to make sure that the rule of law is observed," President Barack Obama told reporters. 
 
 Some experts said it was likely that Russian spy agencies were questioning Snowden on what he knows about U.S. electronic espionage against Moscow. 
 
 "If Russian special services hadn't shown interest in Snowden, they would have been utterly unprofessional," Igor Korotchenko, a former colonel in Russia's top military command turned security analyst, said on state Rossiya 24 television. 
 
 The Kremlin has previously said Russia would be ready to consider Snowden's request for asylum. 
 
 The state ITAR-Tass news agency cited unidentified sources as saying that Snowden hasn't applied for a Russian entry visa and can't cross the border without it. It said that he has remained in the transit zone of the Sheremetyevo airport. 
 
 Legally, an arriving air passenger "crosses the border" after clearing immigration checks. 
 
 The Interfax news agency, which has close contacts with Russian security agencies, quoted an unidentified "well-informed source" in Moscow as saying Tuesday that Snowden could be detained for a check of his papers if he crosses the Russian border. The report could reflect that authorities are searching for a pretext to keep Snowden in Russia. 
 
 Snowden is a former CIA employee who later was hired as a contractor for the NSA. In that job, he gained access to documents that he gave to newspapers the Guardian and The Washington Post to expose what he contends are privacy violations by an authoritarian government. 
 
 Snowden also told the South China Morning Post newspaper in Hong Kong that "the NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese cellphone companies to steal all of your SMS data." He is believed to have more than 200 additional sensitive documents in laptops he is carrying. 
 
 Some observers said in addition to the sensitive data, Snowden's revelations have provided the Kremlin with propaganda arguments to counter the U.S. criticism of Russia's crackdown on opposition and civil activists under President Vladimir Putin. 
 
 "They would use Snowden to demonstrate that the U.S. government doesn't sympathize with the ideals of freedom of information, conceals key information from the public and stands ready to open criminal proceedings against those who oppose it," Konstantin Remchukov, the editor of independent daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta, said on Ekho Moskvy radio. 
 
 Putin has accused the U.S. State Department of instigating protests in Moscow against his re-election for a third term in March and has taken an anti-American posture that plays well with his core support base of industrial workers and state employees. ||||| Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to Sarah Harrison as a lawyer. She is a member of the WikiLeaks legal defense team, but not a lawyer. This version has been corrected. 
 
 Edward Snowden, a contract worker for the National Security Agency, revealed June 9 that he was the source of the leaks to The Washington Post and the Guardian of information about the U.S. government’s vast collection of phone and Internet data. The United States charged Snowden with espionage on June 21. 
 
 1. The leak Edward Snowden, a contract worker for the National Security Agency, revealed June 9 that he was the source of the leaks to The Washington Post and the Guardian of information about the U.S. government’s vast collection of phone and Internet data. The United States charged Snowden with espionage on June 21. Guardian via AP 
 
 A 30-year-old government contractor was the source of high-profile disclosures of the vast collection of data obtained by the National Security Agency and other intelligence groups. 
 
 A 29-year-old government contractor has been charged with espionage for recent leaks of classified intelligence. He has vaulted from obscurity to international notoriety, joining the ranks of high-profile leakers such as Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame. 
 
 A 29-year-old government contractor has been charged with espionage for recent leaks of classified intelligence. He has vaulted from obscurity to international notoriety, joining the ranks of high-profile leakers such as Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame. 
 
 Edward Snowden, sought on espionage charges after bringing secret U.S. surveillance programs to light, receded still further into the shadows Monday as the United States strenuously called on Russia to turn him over for prosecution. 
 
 Snowden, a former government contractor who has not been seen in public since he was said to have arrived in Moscow on Sunday after slipping out of Hong Kong, set off a flurry of diplomatic activity around the globe as frustrated U.S. officials tried to interrupt his flight to asylum. The 30-year-old fugitive , according to Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, who said he was advising Snowden. 
 
 After reporters and airline officials said Snowden failed to board a flight from Moscow to Havana on Monday afternoon as expected, the United States intensified its pressure on the countries suspected of offering him possible protection. Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said the United States believed Snowden was still in Moscow. 
 
 The episode, which began with embarrassing disclosures about American intelligence-gathering, has reverberated from China to South America. As Snowden stays one step ahead of U.S. law, countries large and small are exploiting the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to flout American will. 
 
 “We continue to hope that the Russians will do the right thing,” Secretary of State John F. Kerry, traveling in India, told NBC News. “We think it’s very important in terms of our relationship. 
 
 Russian news agencies quoted a string of careful statements from unnamed sources, who said they were powerless to intervene because Snowden remained in a transit area of the airport and had not crossed the border into official Russian territory. 
 
 “The Americans can’t demand anything,” Vladimir Lukin, Russia’s human rights ombudsman and a former U.S. ambassador, told the Interfax news agency. 
 
 Ecuadoran Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño , who was traveling in Vietnam, read from a letter he said Snowden had sent President Rafael Correa. In the letter, Snowden compared himself to Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, charged in the leak of a trove classified material passed to WikiLeaks, and said he did not believe he would be treated justly and that he could be executed if returned to the United States. 
 
 Assange, speaking to reporters by telephone from his sanctuary in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London, said Snowden was with Sarah Harrison, a top WikiLeaks lieutenant and Assange confidante who had escorted him from Hong Kong. Assange said that Snowden was in a “safe place” and that his “spirits are high” but would say only that he was “bound for Ecuador via a safe path through Russia and other states.” 
 
 A former contractor for the National Security Agency, Snowden has presented the United States with a tantalizing and maddening mystery since he left Hong Kong early Sunday local time despite a request by the United States to detain him. 
 
 Journalists in Moscow have been led on one unsatisfying chase after another since Snowden arrived at the airport Sunday. About two-dozen of them bought tickets to the Monday flight to Havana — costing more than $2,000 each, round-trip — and were dismayed when the seat in Row 17 reportedly assigned to Snowden remained empty as the plane took off. Some hoped, apparently in vain, that he was wearing a disguise or hiding in a crew area of the Aeroflot Airbus. 
 
 With no clear information about Snowden’s plans, Russian media speculated that he would take the Tuesday flight to Havana and travel from there to South America. Another theory had it that the Russians were having second thoughts. 
 
 Carney said U.S. authorities were “in conversations” with their Russian counterparts regarding Snowden, who said he exposed a citizen surveillance program that he believed violated civil liberties. President Obama, in response to a reporter’s question, said only that the United States was “following the appropriate legal channels and working with various countries to make sure that all the rules are followed.” 
 
 Kerry, citing widespread Internet limits and human rights issues in Russia and China, said it was “no small irony” that Snowden was seeking cooperation from those countries in his quest to protect civil liberties. 
 
 “I hope it’s a good sign he isn’t on that flight,” Kerry said in the NBC interview, “and that something else may take place. But I’m not going to prejudge anything other than to say that obviously this is important to us. And I hope the right thing will happen.” 
 
 Kerry asserted that the United States had returned seven criminals wanted by Russia over the past few years. But the United States has also irritated Russia by refusing repeated requests to return Viktor Bout, convicted in New York of global arms smuggling and sentenced to 25 years in prison last year. 
 
 Assange said Ecuador had supplied Snowden with a “refugee document of passage” before his flight from Hong Kong, facilitating his travel to Moscow and, presumably, beyond. Assange described the move as an initial step in the process of seeking asylum and a necessary step given the revocation of Snowden’s passport by U.S. authorities. 
 
 Patiño, the Ecuadoran foreign minister, said his government was “in close contact with the Russian government” but did not have specific information about Snowden’s whereabouts. 
 
 Patiño said Ecuador, which has been sharply criticized for silencing journalists at home, was considering Snowden’s asylum request. He praised the former government contractor for disclosing the surveillance program and said Ecuador was free to exercise its sovereignty as it saw fit with regard to Snowden. 
 
 When asked if he was concerned about damaging his nation’s economic relationship with Washington, Patiño remained adamant. “Ecuador puts its principles above its economic interests,” he said. 
 
 Correa, the Ecuadoran president, has emerged as one of the most vehement critics of U.S. policy in the Western Hemisphere. In 2011, his administration expelled the American ambassador in Quito to protest a cable released by WikiLeaks that alleged that the Ecuadoran police force was rife with corruption. 
 
 Faiola reported from London. Karen DeYoung in New Delhi; Juan Forero in Bogota, Colombia; Jia Lynn Yang in Hong Kong; Phil Rucker, David Nakamura and Debbi Wilgoren in Washington; and Liu Liu in Beijing contributed to this report. ||||| Edward Snowden's stop-and-start flight across the globe appeared to stall in Moscow as the United States ratcheted up pressure to hand over the National Security Agency leaker who had seemed on his way to Ecuador to seek asylum. 
 
 Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, left, greets passersby from the balcony of the presidential palace during the weekly, The Change of the Guard, in Quito, Ecuador, Monday, June 24, 2013. The Ecuadorian... (Associated Press) 
 
 White House press secretary Jay Carney pauses during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, Monday, June 24, 2013. Carney said the U.S. assumes that Edward Snowden is now in Russia... (Associated Press) 
 
 Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino speaks to reporters in Hanoi, Vietnam on Monday June 24, 2013. Patino said his country will act not on its interests but on its principles as it considers an... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this June 21, 2013 file photo, a banner supporting Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, is displayed at Central,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Light shines through a cabin window on seat 17A, the empty seat that an Aeroflot official said was booked in the name of former CIA technician Edward Snowden, during Aeroflot flight SU150 from Moscow... (Associated Press) 
 
 In Ecuador's most extensive statement about the case, the foreign minister hailed Snowden on Monday as "a man attempting to bring light and transparency to facts that affect everyone's fundamental liberties." 
 
 The decision whether to grant Snowden the asylum he has requested is a choice between "betraying the citizens of the world or betraying certain powerful elites in a specific country," Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino told reporters while visiting Vietnam. 
 
 But what had been expected to be a straightforward journey to this South America nation dissolved into uncertainty by day's end. Snowden didn't use a reservation for a Havana-bound Russian airline flight that could have served as the first leg of a trip to safety in Ecuador, and his allies would not say where he was or what changed. Patino said Tuesday that he didn't know Snowden's exact whereabouts. 
 
 In Washington, the White House demanded that Ecuador and other countries deny Snowden asylum. It also sharply criticized China for letting him leave Hong Kong, and urged Russia to "do the right thing" and send him to the U.S. to face espionage charges. 
 
 A high-ranking Ecuadorean official told The Associated Press that Russia and Ecuador were discussing where Snowden could go, and the process could take days. He also said Ecuador's ambassador to Moscow had not seen or spoken to Snowden. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly. 
 
 Ecuadoreans debated whether accepting Snowden would be a step too far for leftist President Rafael Correa, who has won wide popularity with oil-funded social and infrastructure programs while picking public fights with his country's main export market, the U.S. Correa has expelled U.S. diplomats, shuttered an American military base and offered refuge at Ecuador's embassy in London to Julian Assange, praising the founder of Wikileaks for publishing reams of leaked secret U.S. documents. Assange has embraced Snowden and WikiLeaks experts are believed to be assisting him in arranging asylum. 
 
 With unprecedented international attention focused on Ecuador, many citizens said they felt giving asylum to Snowden would be courting trouble for no reason, particularly with a key U.S. trade agreement up for renewal in coming weeks. 
 
 "I think it's just being provocative," said Blanca Sanchez, 50, who sells cosmetics in the capital, Quito. "He needs to take responsibility for himself. This isn't our problem." 
 
 U.S and Ecuadorean officials said they believed Snowden was still in Russia, where he fled Sunday after weeks of hiding out in Hong Kong following his disclosure of the broad scope of two highly classified counterterror surveillance programs to two newspapers. The programs collect vast amounts of Americans' phone records and worldwide online data in the name of national security. 
 
 Assange declined to discuss where Snowden was but said he was safe. Assange said Snowden was only passing through Russia and had applied for asylum in Ecuador, Iceland and possibly other countries. 
 
 State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the U.S. had made demands to "a series of governments," including Ecuador, that Snowden be barred from any international travel other than to be returned to the U.S. The U.S has revoked Snowden's passport. 
 
 The White House said Hong Kong's refusal to detain Snowden had "unquestionably" hurt relations between the United States and China. While Hong Kong has a high degree of autonomy from the rest of China, experts said Beijing probably orchestrated Snowden's exit in an effort to remove an irritant in Sino-U.S. relations. 
 
 Secretary of State John Kerry urged Moscow to "do the right thing" and turn over Snowden. 
 
 "We're following all the appropriate legal channels and working with various other countries to make sure that the rule of law is observed," President Barack Obama told reporters when asked if he was confident that Russia would expel Snowden. 
 
 White House spokesman Jay Carney said the U.S. was expecting the Russians "to look at the options available to them to expel Mr. Snowden back to the United States to face justice for the crimes with which he is charged." 
 
 Carney was tougher on China. 
 
 "The Chinese have emphasized the importance of building mutual trust," he said. "And we think that they have dealt that effort a serious setback. ... This was a deliberate choice by the government to release a fugitive despite a valid arrest warrant, and that decision unquestionably has a negative impact on the U.S.-China relationship." 
 
 Assange and attorneys for WikiLeaks assailed the U.S. as "bullying" foreign nations into refusing asylum to Snowden. WikiLeaks counsel Michael Ratner said Snowden is protected as a whistleblower by the same international treaties that the U.S. has in the past used to criticize policies in China and African nations. 
 
 Ecuadorean analysts said accepting Snowden could jeopardize tariff-free access to U.S. markets for Ecuador's fruit, seafood and flowers. U.S. trade, which also includes oil, accounts for half of Ecuador's exports and about 400,000 jobs in the nation of 14.6 million people. 
 
 The U.S. Andean Trade Preference Act requires congressional renewal soon and hosting Snowden "doesn't help Ecuador's efforts to extend it," said Ramiro Crespo, director of the Quito-based financial analysis firm Analytica Securities. "The United States is an important market for us, and treating a big client this way isn't appropriate from a commercial point of view." 
 
 At the same time, high oil prices, a growing mining industry and rising ties with China may give Correa a sense of protection from U.S. repercussions. Many of the Ecuadoreans who re-elected Correa in February with 57 percent of the vote see flouting the U.S. as a welcome expression of independence, particularly when it comes in the form of granting asylum. 
 
 "This person who's being pursued by the CIA, our policy is loving people like that, protecting them, perhaps giving them the rights that their own countries don't give them. I think this is a worthy effort by us," said office worker Juan Francisco Sambrano. 
 
 In April 2011, the Obama administration expelled the Ecuadorean ambassador to Washington after the U.S. envoy to Ecuador, Heather Hodges, was expelled for making corruption allegations about senior Ecuadorean police authorities in confidential documents disclosed by WikiLeaks. 
 
 American experts said the U.S. will have limited, if any, influence to persuade governments to turn over Snowden if he heads to Cuba or nations in South America that are seen as hostile to Washington. 
 
 "There's little chance Ecuador would give him back" if that country agreed to take him, said James F. Jeffrey, a former ambassador and career diplomat. 
 
 Snowden is a former CIA employee who later was hired as a contractor for the NSA. In that job, he gained access to documents that he gave to The Guardian and The Washington Post to expose what he contends are privacy violations by an authoritarian government. 
 
 Snowden also told the South China Morning Post that "the NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese cellphone companies to steal all of your SMS data." He is believed to have more than 200 additional sensitive documents in laptops he is carrying. ||||| 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. ||||| Story highlights Snowden is safe and "possibly simply relaxing," WikiLeaks spokesman says 
 
 Venezuela hasn't gotten asylum request but would consider it, leader says 
 
 Vladimir Putin says Russia won't hand Snowden over to U.S. authorities 
 
 U.S. is asking for help in detaining former NSA contractor accused of spilling secrets 
 
 Edward Snowden , the former National Security Agency contractor who spilled U.S. surveillance secrets to the world, is a "free man" biding his time in a Moscow airport, Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters Tuesday. 
 
 Putin said Snowden -- who flew to Moscow from Hong Kong on Sunday -- is in the "transit area" of Sheremetyevo International Airport, the zone between arrival gates and Russia's passport control checkpoints. While he said Russia won't hand Snowden over to the United States, he seemed eager to have the focus of international intrigue off his hands. 
 
 "The sooner he selects his final destination point, the better both for us and for himself," Putin said from Finland of Snowden, who is wanted by U.S. officials on espionage charges for disclosing classified details of U.S. surveillance programs. 
 
 Putin's comments end, for now at least, the international pastime of "Where's Snowden?" There have been rumors for days that the former NSA contractor had perhaps duped the world into thinking he was in Moscow to throw pursuers off his trail as he seeks a safe haven from U.S. prosecution. 
 
 Kristinn Hrafnsson -- a spokesman for WikiLeaks, an organization that facilitates the anonymous leaking of secret information and has one of its members with Snowden in Russia -- told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday only that Snowden "is in a safe place and is comfortable and possibly simply relaxing after a very stressful week." 
 
 JUST WATCHED Hunting for Edward Snowden Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Hunting for Edward Snowden 02:08 
 
 JUST WATCHED Snowden's global game of hide and seek Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Snowden's global game of hide and seek 00:10 
 
 JUST WATCHED Schumer: Putin aided, abetted Snowden Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Schumer: Putin aided, abetted Snowden 04:13 
 
 JUST WATCHED McCain: Putin 'sticks his thumb' at us Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH McCain: Putin 'sticks his thumb' at us 03:30 
 
 Noting the United States and Russia do not have an extradition agreement, Putin said Snowden can't be turned over to U.S. authorities and has committed no crimes on Russian soil. 
 
 But he also said Russian security forces have not been "working with" Snowden and expressed hope that the incident would not "affect the cordial nature of our relations with the U.S." Hrafnsson offered a similar story, saying there's been "no cooperation or coordination with the Russian authority" before or since Snowden arrived in Moscow. 
 
 A senior Obama administration official called Putin's comments "potentially positive" while reiterating hopes that Snowden would be expelled from Russia and returned to the United States. 
 
 U.S. officials believe Russian authorities have a "clear legal basis to expel Mr. Snowden, based on the status of his travel documents and the pending charges against him," National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said. 
 
 Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking to reporters while traveling in Saudi Arabia, said the United States isn't looking to Russia to enforce U.S. law, only to "allow him to be subject to the laws of our land and our Constitution." 
 
 "We are not looking for confrontation, we're not ordering anybody," Kerry said. "We're simply requesting under a very normal procedure for the transfer of somebody, just as we transferred to Russia seven people in the last two years that they requested, that we did without any clamor, without any rancor, without any argument and according to our sense of the appropriateness of meeting their request." 
 
 Snowden left Hong Kong on Sunday after a couple of weeks spent doling out details of classified U.S. intelligence programs to journalists. 
 
 With his passport revoked by U.S. officials, Snowden traveled out of the semiautonomous Chinese territory on refugee papers issued by Ecuador, one of the countries from which he is seeking asylum. 
 
 International tiff 
 
 His travels have sparked international dust-ups, with U.S. officials accusing China of making a "deliberate choice" to let Snowden go free and criticizing Russia for failing to hand him over in a spirit of international cooperation. 
 
 On Tuesday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman rejected the U.S. claims as "unreasonable," according to the official Xinhua news service. 
 
 "The accusation that the U.S. side made against the Central Government of China fell short of proof. The Chinese side will absolutely not accept it," spokeswoman Hua Chunying said. 
 
 Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung, Hong Kong's justice secretary, likewise denied that authorities there intentionally let Snowden leave before acting on U.S. requests. 
 
 "All along, we acted fully in accordance with the law and any suggestion that we have been deliberately letting Mr. Snowden go away or to do any other thing to obstruct the normal operation is totally untrue," Yuen said Tuesday. 
 
 Authorities in Hong Kong were seeking answers from U.S. authorities around when Snowden left, the justice secretary added. Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-Ying said Monday that authorities acted independently from Beijing "to follow procedural fairness and procedural justice." 
 
 In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the U.S. complaints "absolutely groundless and unacceptable." 
 
 "I want to say, right away, that we have nothing to do with Mr. Snowden or his movements around the world," Lavrov said. 
 
 JUST WATCHED Did the U.S. drop the ball on Snowden? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Did the U.S. drop the ball on Snowden? 02:00 
 
 JUST WATCHED White House upset about Snowden travels Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH White House upset about Snowden travels 03:20 
 
 JUST WATCHED We want to know: Where's Ed? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH We want to know: Where's Ed? 02:28 
 
 The White House is eager to avoid a repeat of what happened in Hong Kong, where authorities let Snowden leave despite a U.S. request for his arrest and extradition. Washington has described that move as a "serious setback" to building trust between the United States and China. 
 
 But the Obama administration doesn't have much leverage with Moscow, said Matthew Rojansky, an expert on U.S. and Russian national security at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 
 
 "We really need Russian cooperation, I think, much more in most areas than the Russians need us," he said. 
 
 U.S. diplomatic headache 
 
 Washington is also telling other countries where Snowden might end up -- notably Ecuador, which says it's analyzing an asylum request from Snowden -- that they should hand him over if he lands on their soil. They note that his U.S. passport has been revoked. 
 
 "The U.S. is advising these governments that Mr. Snowden is wanted on felony charges and as such should not be allowed to proceed in any further international travel other than is necessary to return him here to the United States," Carney said. 
 
 One rumored destination is Venezuela, whose leaders have been frequently at odds with Washington in recent years. 
 
 According to the AVN state news agency, President Nicolas Maduro said Tuesday his country has not received a formal request for political asylum from Snowden. But if it did, the government would consider it on humanitarian grounds, the agency reports. 
 
 In its quest to get Snowden, the United States has limited options. CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said the issue now "is much more of a political and diplomatic matter than it is a legal matter." 
 
 "In an ordinary case, sure, you need a passport to get around," Toobin said. "But here, where this case is causing increasing embarrassment for the United States, governments that want the United States to be embarrassed are only too happy to waive some of the technical legal rules." 
 
 The leak controversy 
 
 Snowden has acknowledged he leaked classified documents about the NSA's surveillance programs to the Guardian newspaper in Britain and The Washington Post. 
 
 The documents revealed the existence of programs that collect records of domestic telephone calls in the United States and monitor the Internet activity of people overseas residents. 
 
 The disclosures shook the U.S. intelligence community and raised questions about whether the NSA is eroding American civil liberties. 
 
 Snowden worked as a Hawaii-based computer network administrator for Booz Allen Hamilton, an NSA contractor, before he fled to Hong Kong last month with laptops full of confidential information. 
 
 The South China Morning Post newspaper published a story Monday quoting Snowden as saying he took the job to gather evidence on U.S. surveillance programs. 
 
 He told the Guardian that he exposed the surveillance programs because they pose a threat to democracy, but administration officials said the programs are vital to preventing terrorist attacks and are overseen by all three branches of government. 
 
 Carney questioned Snowden's assertion that he acted in defense of democratic transparency, saying his argument "is belied by the protectors he has potentially chosen -- China, Russia, Ecuador." 
 
 "His failures to criticize these regimes suggests that his true motive throughout has been to injure the national security of the United States, not to advance Internet freedom and free speech," Carney told reporters. 
 
 Snowden's search 
 
 Snowden is seeking asylum from Ecuador, Iceland and other, unspecified countries, a WikiLeaks attorney said Monday. 
 
 Ecuador has already given WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange freedom if he can find a way out of the country's embassy in London. 
 
 In his aslyum request read by Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo, Snowden compared himself to Pvt. Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier accused of leaking classified information through WikiLeaks. 
 
 He said U.S. officials have treated Manning inhumanely by holding him in solitary confinement, and he predicted a similar "cruel and unusual" fate for himself if he falls into U.S. hands. 
 
 Snowden has come under some criticism for seeking out help from nations with questionable histories on free speech and press freedom. 
 
 For instance, The Committee to Protect Journalists has criticized Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa's government for pushing legislation that would roll back press freedoms, calling its policies increasingly repressive. 
 
 Snowden isn't looking for "political nirvana," said Glenn Greenwald, the columnist for the Guardian who broke his revelations. 
 
 "He's searching for a place where he can be safe and remain free and participate in the debate, and Ecuador seems to be the place he has chosen," Greenwald told CNN's "The Lead." 
 
 Some have speculated Snowden has "doomsday insurance" in the form of even more top-secret U.S. documents that will go public if he's ever detained by U.S. authorities. 
 
 Hrafnsson, the WikiLeaks spokesman, said he didn't know about Snowden's specific plans, but did suggest more secrets may be revealed. 
 
 "This is simply information that should be out in the public," he said. "There is more to come." ||||| At the White House, President Obama’s press secretary, Jay Carney, reinforced what he called “our frustration and disappointment with Hong Kong and China,” calling their refusal to detain Mr. Snowden a “serious setback” in relations. He said the Hong Kong authorities had been notified that Mr. Snowden’s passport had been revoked, and he dismissed their explanation that they had no legal basis to stop Mr. Snowden. “We do not buy the suggestion that China could not have taken action,” Mr. Carney said. 
 
 Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 American officials also openly mocked China and Russia as states that repress free speech and transparency and therefore are hardly apt refuges for someone fighting government secrecy in the United States. 
 
 “I wonder if Mr. Snowden chose China and Russia as assistants in his flight from justice because they’re such powerful bastions of Internet freedom,” Mr. Kerry said sarcastically during a stop in New Delhi. 
 
 Photo 
 
 Mr. Carney said Mr. Snowden’s chosen destinations indicated “his true motive throughout has been to injure the national security of the United States.” 
 
 Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 The strong words went beyond typical diplomatic language and underscored the growing ramifications of the case for the United States. The Obama administration’s inability, at least for now, to influence China, Russia and countries in Latin America that may accept Mr. Snowden for asylum, like Ecuador, brought home the limits of American power around the world. 
 
 Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 Ecuador’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patiño, criticized the United States on Monday for its pursuit of Mr. Snowden. “The one who is denounced pursues the denouncer,” Mr. Patiño said at a news conference in Hanoi, Vietnam, a stop on a previously scheduled diplomatic visit to Asia. “The man who tries to provide light and transparency to issues that affect everyone is pursued by those who should be giving explanations about the denunciations that have been presented.” 
 
 Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa, wrote on his Twitter account, “We will analyze very responsibly the Snowden case and with absolute sovereignty will make the decision we consider the most appropriate.” The United States remains Ecuador’s leading trading partner, but Washington’s influence in Quito has been slight since Mr. Correa became president in 2007. He has repeatedly flouted and tweaked the United States, by for example stopping American antidrug flights out of a military base in Manta, and expelling the American ambassador in 2011 after WikiLeaks cables suggested she felt Mr. Correa had tolerated police corruption. 
 
 A range of American officials, including the deputy secretary of state and the F.B.I. director, spent Monday reaching out to their Russian counterparts seeking cooperation, without any apparent result. Mr. Snowden, who spent Sunday night in the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, did not board the flight for Havana he was said to have booked, and he made no public appearance or statement. 
 
 American officials said they believed he was still in Moscow, but it was unclear whether his failure to continue on to Cuba, Ecuador or elsewhere was a sign that Russia was considering handing him over to the United States, sheltering him itself, planning to allow him to leave later or trying to extract information from him before deciding. The United States and Russia do not have an extradition treaty. 
 
 Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 Nikolay N. Zakharov, a spokesman for Russia’s Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., declined to say if intelligence officials had met with Mr. Snowden, nor would he say if they had sought to examine any secret files he was said to be carrying. “On this question, we will not comment,” Mr. Zakharov said. 
 
 Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 American intelligence officials remained deeply concerned that Mr. Snowden could make public more documents disclosing details of the National Security Agency’s collection system or that his documents could be obtained by foreign intelligence services, with or without his cooperation. 
 
 Photo 
 
 Technical experts have been carrying out a forensic analysis of the trail he left in N.S.A. computer systems, trying to determine what he had access to as a systems administrator for Booz Allen Hamilton, a United States government contractor, and what he may have downloaded, officials said. 
 
 Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 The South China Morning Post reported Monday night on its Web site that in an interview, Mr. Snowden said he had specifically sought the job at Booz Allen so he could collect information about the N.S.A’s secret surveillance programs to release to news outlets. 
 
 Glenn Greenwald, a columnist for The Guardian, has said Mr. Snowden gave him thousands of documents, only a tiny fraction of which were published. Many may be of limited public interest, but they could be of great value to a foreign intelligence service, which could get a more complete idea of the security agency’s technical abilities and how to evade its net, officials said. 
 
 Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. 
 
 Mr. Snowden’s flight from Hong Kong to Moscow on Sunday put the United States at odds with onetime cold war rivals just as Mr. Obama was trying to ease tensions over a variety of other friction points. In the last few weeks, he hosted President Xi Jinping of China on a visit to California and met with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in Northern Ireland. But talk of constructive relations seemed long ago on Monday. 
 
 Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 Critics said the episode exposed the president’s failure in foreign policy. “It turns out that an irresolute amateur like Barack Obama was the best thing that the brutal but determined Putin could have hoped for,” Peter Wehner, a former aide to President George W. Bush, wrote in Commentary magazine. 
 
 Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, sent a letter to Russia’s ambassador, Sergei I. Kislyak, warning of a break if Moscow did not send Mr. Snowden back to the United States. “The Snowden case is an important test of the ‘reset’ in relations between our two countries,” Mr. Graham wrote. 
 
 Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 Mr. Obama’s team seemed angrier at China than Russia, which for the moment had not directly defied Washington. Officials disclosed more information about their request to Hong Kong to detain and return Mr. Snowden, defending themselves against assertions that they had mishandled the request. 
 
 Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 A senior official said the State Department had raised the issue of arresting Mr. Snowden with the Chinese after espionage charges were filed in secret on June 14. The official said that as soon as the charges were unsealed on Friday, the department revoked Mr. Snowden’s passport, and that legally it could not have done so earlier. Officials added that they had informed the Hong Kong authorities that the passport had been revoked before Mr. Snowden was allowed to board an Aeroflot flight for Moscow. 
 
 Video 
 
 “The Chinese have emphasized the importance of building mutual trust,” Mr. Carney said. “And we think that they have dealt that effort a serious setback. If we cannot count on them to honor their legal extradition obligations, then there is a problem. And that is a point we are making to them very directly.” 
 
 Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 Officials also defended their decision not to seek a “red notice,” or international arrest warrant, from Interpol, saying they typically do so only when the whereabouts of the fugitive being sought is unknown. 
 
 Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 Jacques Semmelman, an extradition specialist and a former federal prosecutor, said that was generally correct, but he added that the United States still could have sought a red notice if it feared Mr. Snowden might flee, so the warrant would be in place wherever he landed. But Mr. Semmelman said the United States had good reason not to fear that Mr. Snowden might flee because of its 1996 treaty with Hong Kong, under which it had requested his provisional arrest. 
 
 He said that the information required to make such a request was simple — “it’s a one- or two-pager that is very easy to comply with"— and that it was “inconceivable” to him that American officials had not filled it out correctly. If the Hong Kong authorities were willing to overlook a proper request, then a revocation of Mr. Snowden’s passport or a red notice might not have made a difference. “I haven’t seen anything to show the United States dropped the ball,” he said. 
 
 Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 Critics of the surveillance programs exposed by Mr. Snowden moved in Congress on Monday to curtail them. Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, introduced legislation intended to bolster privacy safeguards and require oversight. 
 
 Two other Democrats who joined him on the bill, Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado, sent a letter to Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the N.S.A. director, asserting that a government fact sheet about its surveillance of foreigners abroad “contains an inaccurate statement.” They did not identify the inaccuracy because of secrecy rules but said “it portrays protections for Americans’ privacy as being significantly stronger than they actually are.” 
 
 At Sheremetyevo airport, where journalists had maintained an all-night vigil, security was tight Monday as agents called passengers to board an Aeroflot flight that Mr. Snowden reportedly had planned to take to Havana. Police officers stood around the plane on the tarmac, and the entrance to the gate inside the terminal was cordoned off with about 25 feet of blue ribbon. 
 
 But before the plane pulled away, an Aeroflot employee said Mr. Snowden was not on board, which one of the flight’s two captains confirmed when the plane landed 16 hours later in Havana. 
 
 Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 In response to reporters’ shouted questions, “Was Snowden on board?” the captain, who would not give his name, replied: “No Snowden. No special people. Only journalists.”
– 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.