Lot of buzz out there that our intel folks fear that Snowden has in his possession a “doomsday file” that could blow our intel establishment to bits even more effectively than the Church Committee.
Perhaps he is holding it for protection. But it’s hard to believe Vlad Putin lets him stay without sharing.
There are at least a couple possibilities:
IIRC, Putin said Snowden did not reveal anything new to them. They may have simply concluded Snowden had nothing they did not already have. If Snowden was able to access the information relatively easily, then it's a near 100% probability that the Russians, and perhaps others, had moles inside who'd already extracted it. Meanwhile, Putin gets to thumb his nose at the USA, and watch as Obambi is embarrassed. If you recall Putin's comments about Dubya's dog vs. his (Putin's) dog, it's pretty clear that Putin enjoys such snubs quite a bit.
OR (less likely, but plausible):
Putin may fear or know that the NSA has something on him that by mutual (unspoken?) agreement NSA would not make publicly known. But Snowden has it too, and is, or at least was, not part of that agreement.
Or it could be something I've not thought of!
Also note that the file is most likely not in Snowden's possession -- that would be very dangerous to him. More likely, it simply gets released upon his demise, or shortly thereafter. (A cyber-age "dead man's switch".)