I think the official story is that his Visa was cancelled while in flight from HK. So by that reasoning, he would have no where else to go after he landed in Russia. Thereby being stuck, he would have just gone public anyway.
But according to Q, the whole Snowden story is part of a game. So either he is was a white hat working behind the scenes in Russia for some purpose, such as NK ties; or a black hat on the run, using his exile as cover to work with the Russians on hacking and crypto.
I can't figure it out. But the whole thing with Snowden, Glen Greenwald, the Intercept, the CIA and its battle with NSA, is a deep rabbit hole.