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Edward Snowden Loses Norway Safe Passage Case (bbc.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BBC: Edward Snowden's bid to guarantee that he would not be extradited to the U.S. if he visited Norway has been rejected by the Norwegian supreme court. The former spy contractor filed the lawsuit in April, attempting to secure safe passage to Norway to pick up a free speech award. It had already been rejected by Oslo District court and an appeals court. Mr Snowden's lawyers have previously said if he were extradited to the U.S., it would be "a foregone conclusion" that he would be convicted and jailed. Mr Snowden has been living in Russia, out of reach of the U.S. authorities, since the leaks in 2013. He had hoped to travel to Oslo to receive the Ossietzky Prize, for "outstanding efforts for freedom of expression." The award was due to be presented earlier this month. But the Norwegian Supreme Court said it could not rule on the legality of any move to extradite Mr Snowden as the U.S. had so far made no such request.
He could probably avoid this issue if he became a Russian citizen. That would give Russia an excuse to flaunt their authority at the rest of the world by granting him passage to Norway. If the US attempted to extradite him, Russia would have every reason to flex their muscles to defend one of their own.
He could probably avoid this issue if he became a Russian citizen
Probably not. As most countries (the US included) Norway does not (typically) extradite its own citizens to a foreign country, however it is bound to extradite to countries who (lawfully) request it irrespective of the nationality of the individual if the individual is not a Norwegian citizen. This is generally the practice all over the world. The Norwegian Supreme Court has just ruled that a wanted Iraqi terrorist who lives in Norway can be extradited to face charges in Italy. He can however not be extradited to Iraq since that government is unwilling to guarantee the terrorist will not be executed.
As HuskyDog points out below, if he gets a Russian Diplomatic Passport, the Norwegian government can't go near him. On the other hand, issuing a diplomatic passport to Snowden might be too pricey even for Putin.