Snowden never went to Russia. If you watch the documentary, JA helped him hide prior to "flight out" and he went to airport to get footage, but everyone that got on plane lost track of him. The media reported that they followed him to Russia and that his passport was revoked, but that was revoked as soon as he released. He never left HK. He most likely backtracked and went right to the Clown station that he pretended to be so worried about in the hotel. It was right down the street.
The narrative needed to place him there, but there was no physical need. Putin would play the game, but he already knew what the Cabal was up to. Remember this was after the "reset" failed and Putin shut down adoptions to the US. This was 2013, so things were already in motion.
My guess is the C-links were so Snowden could perfect the censorship algorithms in those 3 countries that already allowed censorship and then put the algorithm into place here. The Spartans were the SF crossing to go grab Snowden. News conference 24 hours from 3pm EST, so 3pm Thursday. [Comb his hair] so he looks good on TV.