Snowden is not stupid - he knows what he's getting into. If the Russian government is offering to shelter him, it's in exchange for more information. They have no use for a mid-level sysadmin that they can't trust.
I still find it difficult to believe that the Russian government didn't have information about the US' spy programs already.
They might have. They wouldnt tell anyone what they know, or what they dont know about.
Exactly. This is an American (well, former) screaming from a soapbox that whatever USA-conspiracy theory in mind is factual. This is a free pass to use him as a puppet.
I'm sure that they did, but that doesn't mean that Snowden doesn't know/have access to useful, privileged information.