Consider for a moment that Snowden and Assange are in league with Putin, and that Putin and Obama are in league to deny the Clintons control of the Democrat Party.
Or is that tinfoil hat stuff?
I think Russia took in Snowden more as payback to the US for taking in all sorts of traitors that the Soviets wanted back during the cold war.
Keeping in mind that Putin is ex-KGB this makes a lot of sense.