I bet this could have been avoided if the U.S. granted Russia's most excellent and reasonable request for the U.S. to turn over Konstantin Yaroshanko and Viktor Bout. I think with an offer of that particular duo's prison swap on the table, Russia would gladly have detained Snowden upon his arrival and held him for the U.S. Do Russians even need a warrant to arrest people? Too late now. It seems Snowden is off the hook for several months (at least) of freedom.
What does the U.S. do now? Probably what it always does. Set up a sting and kidnap Snowden and rendition him back to the U.S. That
s what it did with Bout (in Thailand) and Yaroshenko (in Africa.) With the Somali pirates, it doesn't even bother with the sting, it moves right into the kidnap operation, and puts them on a flight to the Rocket Docket in Virginia.
From the South China Post, here is the Hong Kong Press release on allowing Snowden to leave.
The US Government earlier on made a request to the HKSAR Government for the issue of a provisional warrant of arrest against Mr Snowden. Since the documents provided by the US Government did not fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law, the HKSAR Government has requested the US Government to provide additional information so that the Department of Justice could consider whether the US Government's request can meet the relevant legal conditions. As the HKSAR Government has yet to have sufficient information to process the request for provisional warrant of arrest, there is no legal basis to restrict Mr Snowden from leaving Hong Kong.
The HKSAR Government has already informed the US Government of Mr Snowden's departure.
Meanwhile, the HKSAR Government has formally written to the US Government requesting clarification on earlier reports about the hacking of computer systems in Hong Kong by US government agencies. The HKSAR Government will continue to follow up on the matter so as to protect the legal rights of the people of Hong Kong.
Russia's not spilling many beans on the situation.
We wish Mr. Snowden a safe flight. I'd still like to see him show up at Kim Dotcom's mansion in New Zealand. He seems like a generous guy, he might even share some of his lawyers to help Snowden.