Updated 6:50 a.m. ET 
 
 WASHINGTON The bizarre journey of Edward Snowden is far from over. After spending a night in Moscow's airport, the former National Security Agency contractor and admitted leaker of U.S. state secrets was expected to fly to Cuba and Venezuela en route to possible asylum in Ecuador. 
 
 But the U.S. says Moscow should hand Snowden over to Washington. 
 
 Edward Snowden on the run, reportedly in Russia Russia and China OK with defying Obama on Snowden Kerry: "Serious consequences" if Snowden boards plane from Russia 
 
 Multiple reports say Snowden wasn't on an Aeroflot flight from Moscow to Havana Monday that earlier reports indicated he'd be on. 
 
 Snowden, also a former CIA technician, fled Hong Kong on Sunday to dodge U.S. efforts to extradite him on espionage charges. Ecuador's Foreign Minister, Ricardo Patino, said his government had received an asylum request. He added Monday that Ecuador's decision about the request involves "freedom of expression and ... the security of citizens around the world." He did not say how long it would take Ecuador to decide. 
 
 The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks has said it was helping Snowden. 
 
 Ecuador has rejected the United States' previous efforts at cooperation, and has been helping WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange avoid prosecution by allowing him to stay at its embassy in London. 
 
 Snowden was on a flight from Hong Kong that arrived in Moscow Sunday and was booked on a flight to Cuba Monday, the Russian news agencies ITAR-Tass and Interfax reported, citing unnamed airline officials. 
 
 Patino said, "We know that he's currently in Moscow, and we are ... in touch with the highest authorities of Russia." 
 
 The NSC issued a statement early Monday saying it is "disappointed by the decision of the authorities in Hong Kong to permit Mr. Snowden to flee despite the legally valid U.S. request to arrest him for purposes of his extradition under the U.S.-Hong Kong Surrender Agreement. We have registered our strong objections to the authorities in Hong Kong as well as to the Chinese government through diplomatic channels and noted that such behavior is detrimental to U.S.-Hong Kong and U.S.-China bilateral relations." 
 
 The statement continued, "We now understand Mr. Snowden is on Russian soil. Given our intensified cooperation after the Boston marathon bombings and our history of working with Russia on law enforcement matters -- including returning numerous high level criminals back to Russia at the request of the Russian government -- we expect the Russian Government to look at all options available to expel Mr. Snowden back to the U.S. to face justice for the crimes with which he is charged." 
 
 At a news conference in New Delhi, India Monday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Moscow should send Snowden back to the U.S. but, "Historically, there are some countries that just play outside of that process." 
 
 Kerry said it would be "very disappointing" if China and Russia allowed Snowden to fly, and there would undoubtedly be "an impact on our relations." 
 
 Kerry added that Snowden "places himself above the law, having betrayed his country." 
 
 The Reuters news agency quotes a spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin as saying the Kremlin doesn't know of any contact between Snowden and Russian authorities. Reuters says Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the U.S. calls for Russia to expel Snowden. 
 
 A senior administration official told CBS News, "Mr. Snowden's claim that he is focused on supporting transparency, freedom of the press and protection of individual rights and democracy is belied by the protectors he has potentially chosen: China, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela and Ecuador. His failure to criticize these regimes suggests that his true motive throughout has been to injure the national security of the U.S., not to advance internet freedom and free speech." 
 
 Snowden gave documents to The Guardian and The Washington Post newspapers disclosing U.S. surveillance programs that collect vast amounts of phone records and online data in the name of foreign intelligence, often sweeping up information on American citizens. Officials have the ability to collect phone and Internet information broadly, but need a warrant to examine specific cases where they believe terrorism is involved. 
 
 Snowden had been in hiding for several weeks in Hong Kong, a former British colony with a high degree of autonomy from mainland China. The United States formally sought Snowden's extradition from Hong Kong to face espionage charges but was rebuffed; Hong Kong officials said the U.S. request did not fully comply with its laws. 
 
 The Justice Department rejected that claim, saying its request met all of the requirements of the extradition treaty between the U.S. and Hong Kong. During conversations last week, including a phone call Wednesday between Attorney General Eric Holder and Hong Kong Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen, Hong Kong officials never raised any issues regarding sufficiency of the U.S. request, a Justice representative said. 
 
 The United States was in touch through diplomatic and law enforcement channels with countries that Snowden could travel through or to, reminding them that Snowden is wanted on criminal charges and reiterating Washington's position that Snowden should only be permitted to travel back to the U.S., a State Department official said. Snowden's U.S. passport has been revoked. 
 
 U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the case. 
 
 An unidentified Aeroflot airline official was cited by Russia's state ITAR-Tass news agency and Interfax as saying Snowden was on the plane that landed Sunday afternoon in Moscow. The Russian report said Snowden intended to fly to Cuba on Monday and then on to Caracas, Venezuela. 
 
 The White House was hoping to stop Snowden before he left Moscow. 
 
 Still, the United States is likely to have problems interrupting Snowden's passage. The United States does not have an extradition treaty with Russia, but does with Cuba, Venezuela and Ecuador. Even with an extradition agreement though, any country could give Snowden a political exemption. 
 
 The likelihood that any of these countries would stop Snowden from traveling on to Ecuador seemed remote. While diplomatic tensions have thawed in recent years, Cuba and the United States are hardly allies after a half-century of distrust. Another country that could see Snowden pass through, Venezuela, could prove difficult, as well. Former President Hugo Chavez was a sworn enemy of the United States and his successor, Nicolas Maduro, earlier this year called President Obama the "grand chief of devils." The two countries do not exchange ambassadors. 
 
 Snowden's options aren't numerous, said Assange's lawyer, Michael Ratner. 
 
 "You have to have a country that's going to stand up to the United States," Ratner said. "You're not talking about a huge range of countries here." 
 
 It also wasn't clear Snowden was finished disclosing highly classified information. 
 
 Snowden has perhaps more than 200 sensitive documents, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on CBS' "Face the Nation." ||||| Russian President Vladimir Putin says that National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden is in the transit zone of a Moscow airport and will not be extradited to the United States. 
 
 Graphic shows the geographical career path and recent travels of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden; 3c x 5 inches; 146 mm x 127 mm; (Associated Press) 
 
 Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, left, greets passersby from the balcony of the presidential palace during the weekly, The Change of the Guard, in Quito, Ecuador, Monday, June 24, 2013. The Ecuadorian... (Associated Press) 
 
 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaks at a news conference in Moscow on Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Lavrov on Tuesday bluntly rejected U.S. demands to extradite National Security Agency leaker Edward... (Associated Press) 
 
 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaks at a news conference in Moscow on Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Lavrov on Tuesday bluntly rejected U.S. demands to extradite National Security Agency leaker Edward... (Associated Press) 
 
 White House press secretary Jay Carney pauses during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, Monday, June 24, 2013. Carney said the U.S. assumes that Edward Snowden is now in Russia... (Associated Press) 
 
 Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino speaks to reporters in Hanoi, Vietnam on Monday June 24, 2013. Patino said his country will act not on its interests but on its principles as it considers an... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this June 21, 2013 file photo, a banner supporting Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, is displayed at Central,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Light shines through a cabin window on seat 17A, the empty seat that an Aeroflot official said was booked in the name of former CIA technician Edward Snowden, during Aeroflot flight SU150 from Moscow... (Associated Press) 
 
 Putin said that Snowden hasn't crossed the Russian border and is free to go anywhere. 
 
 Speaking on a visit to Finland Tuesday, he added that Russian security agencies "didn't work and aren't working" with Snowden. He gave no more details. 
 
 Commenting on a U.S. request to extradite him, Putin said that Russia doesn't have an extradition agreement with the U.S. and thus wouldn't meet the U.S. request. 
 
 He voiced hope that Snowden will depart as quickly as possible and that his stopover at Moscow's airport wouldn't affect bilateral ties. 
 
 THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. 
 
 Russia's foreign minister bluntly rejected U.S. demands to extradite National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, saying Tuesday that Snowden hasn't crossed the Russian border. 
 
 Sergey Lavrov insisted that Russia has nothing to do with Snowden or his travel plans. Lavrov wouldn't say where Snowden is, but he lashed out angrily at Washington for demanding his extradition and warning of negative consequences if Moscow fails to comply. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has urged Moscow to "do the right thing" and turn over Snowden. 
 
 "We consider the attempts to accuse Russia of violating U.S. laws and even some sort of conspiracy, which on top of all that are accompanied by threats, as absolutely ungrounded and unacceptable," Lavrov said. "There are no legal grounds for such conduct by U.S. officials." 
 
 The defiant tone underlined the Kremlin's readiness to challenge Washington at a time when U.S.-Russian relations are strained over Syria and a Russian ban on adoptions by Americans. 
 
 U.S. and Ecuadorean officials said they believed Snowden was still in Russia. He fled there Sunday from Hong Kong, where he had been hiding out since his disclosure of the broad scope of two highly classified U.S. counterterror surveillance programs. The programs collect vast amounts of Americans' phone records and worldwide online data in the name of national security. 
 
 Kerry said Tuesday that although the United States does not have an extradition treaty with Russia, he called on Moscow to comply with common law practices between countries where fugitives are concerned. 
 
 "I would simply appeal for calm and reasonableness. We would hope that Russia would not side with someone who is `a fugitive' from justice,' " Kerry said at a news conference in Saudi Arabia. 
 
 Lavrov claimed that the Russian government found out about Snowden's flight from Hong Kong only from news reports. 
 
 "We have no relation to Mr. Snowden, his relations with American justice or his travels around the world," Lavrov said. "He chooses his route himself, and we have learned about it from the media." 
 
 Snowden booked a seat on a Havana-bound flight from Moscow on Monday en route to Venezuela and then possible asylum in Ecuador, but he didn't board the plane. Russian news media have reported that he has remained in a transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, but journalists there haven't seen him. 
 
 A representative of WikiLeaks has been traveling with Snowden, and the organization is believed to be assisting him in arranging asylum. The organization's founder, Julian Assange, said Monday that Snowden was only passing through Russia and had applied for asylum in Ecuador, Iceland and possibly other countries. 
 
 A high-ranking Ecuadorean official told The Associated Press that Russia and Ecuador were discussing where Snowden could go, saying the process could take days. He also said Ecuador's ambassador to Moscow had not seen or spoken to Snowden. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly. 
 
 Ecuador's foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, hailed Snowden on Monday as "a man attempting to bring light and transparency to facts that affect everyone's fundamental liberties." 
 
 He described the decision on whether to grant Snowden asylum as a choice between "betraying the citizens of the world or betraying certain powerful elites in a specific country." 
 
 State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the U.S. had made demands to "a series of governments," including Ecuador, that Snowden be barred from any international travel other than to be returned to the U.S. The U.S. has revoked Snowden's passport. 
 
 "We're following all the appropriate legal channels and working with various other countries to make sure that the rule of law is observed," President Barack Obama told reporters. 
 
 Some experts said it was likely that Russian spy agencies were questioning Snowden on what he knows about U.S. electronic espionage against Moscow. 
 
 "If Russian special services hadn't shown interest in Snowden, they would have been utterly unprofessional," Igor Korotchenko, a former colonel in Russia's top military command turned security analyst, said on state Rossiya 24 television. 
 
 The Kremlin has previously said Russia would be ready to consider Snowden's request for asylum. 
 
 The state ITAR-Tass news agency cited unidentified sources as saying that Snowden hasn't applied for a Russian entry visa and can't cross the border without it. It said that he has remained in the transit zone of the Sheremetyevo airport. 
 
 Legally, an arriving air passenger "crosses the border" after clearing immigration checks. 
 
 The Interfax news agency, which has close contacts with Russian security agencies, quoted an unidentified "well-informed source" in Moscow as saying Tuesday that Snowden could be detained for a check of his papers if he crosses the Russian border. The report could reflect that authorities are searching for a pretext to keep Snowden in Russia. 
 
 Snowden is a former CIA employee who later was hired as a contractor for the NSA. In that job, he gained access to documents that he gave to newspapers the Guardian and The Washington Post to expose what he contends are privacy violations by an authoritarian government. 
 
 Snowden also told the South China Morning Post newspaper in Hong Kong that "the NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese cellphone companies to steal all of your SMS data." He is believed to have more than 200 additional sensitive documents in laptops he is carrying. 
 
 Some observers said in addition to the sensitive data, Snowden's revelations have provided the Kremlin with propaganda arguments to counter the U.S. criticism of Russia's crackdown on opposition and civil activists under President Vladimir Putin. 
 
 "They would use Snowden to demonstrate that the U.S. government doesn't sympathize with the ideals of freedom of information, conceals key information from the public and stands ready to open criminal proceedings against those who oppose it," Konstantin Remchukov, the editor of independent daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta, said on Ekho Moskvy radio. 
 
 Putin has accused the U.S. State Department of instigating protests in Moscow against his re-election for a third term in March and has taken an anti-American posture that plays well with his core support base of industrial workers and state employees. ||||| Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to Sarah Harrison as a lawyer. She is a member of the WikiLeaks legal defense team, but not a lawyer. This version has been corrected. 
 
 Edward Snowden, a contract worker for the National Security Agency, revealed June 9 that he was the source of the leaks to The Washington Post and the Guardian of information about the U.S. government’s vast collection of phone and Internet data. The United States charged Snowden with espionage on June 21. 
 
 1. The leak Edward Snowden, a contract worker for the National Security Agency, revealed June 9 that he was the source of the leaks to The Washington Post and the Guardian of information about the U.S. government’s vast collection of phone and Internet data. The United States charged Snowden with espionage on June 21. Guardian via AP 
 
 A 30-year-old government contractor was the source of high-profile disclosures of the vast collection of data obtained by the National Security Agency and other intelligence groups. 
 
 A 29-year-old government contractor has been charged with espionage for recent leaks of classified intelligence. He has vaulted from obscurity to international notoriety, joining the ranks of high-profile leakers such as Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame. 
 
 A 29-year-old government contractor has been charged with espionage for recent leaks of classified intelligence. He has vaulted from obscurity to international notoriety, joining the ranks of high-profile leakers such as Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame. 
 
 Edward Snowden, sought on espionage charges after bringing secret U.S. surveillance programs to light, receded still further into the shadows Monday as the United States strenuously called on Russia to turn him over for prosecution. 
 
 Snowden, a former government contractor who has not been seen in public since he was said to have arrived in Moscow on Sunday after slipping out of Hong Kong, set off a flurry of diplomatic activity around the globe as frustrated U.S. officials tried to interrupt his flight to asylum. The 30-year-old fugitive , according to Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, who said he was advising Snowden. 
 
 After reporters and airline officials said Snowden failed to board a flight from Moscow to Havana on Monday afternoon as expected, the United States intensified its pressure on the countries suspected of offering him possible protection. Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said the United States believed Snowden was still in Moscow. 
 
 The episode, which began with embarrassing disclosures about American intelligence-gathering, has reverberated from China to South America. As Snowden stays one step ahead of U.S. law, countries large and small are exploiting the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to flout American will. 
 
 “We continue to hope that the Russians will do the right thing,” Secretary of State John F. Kerry, traveling in India, told NBC News. “We think it’s very important in terms of our relationship. 
 
 Russian news agencies quoted a string of careful statements from unnamed sources, who said they were powerless to intervene because Snowden remained in a transit area of the airport and had not crossed the border into official Russian territory. 
 
 “The Americans can’t demand anything,” Vladimir Lukin, Russia’s human rights ombudsman and a former U.S. ambassador, told the Interfax news agency. 
 
 Ecuadoran Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño , who was traveling in Vietnam, read from a letter he said Snowden had sent President Rafael Correa. In the letter, Snowden compared himself to Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, charged in the leak of a trove classified material passed to WikiLeaks, and said he did not believe he would be treated justly and that he could be executed if returned to the United States. 
 
 Assange, speaking to reporters by telephone from his sanctuary in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London, said Snowden was with Sarah Harrison, a top WikiLeaks lieutenant and Assange confidante who had escorted him from Hong Kong. Assange said that Snowden was in a “safe place” and that his “spirits are high” but would say only that he was “bound for Ecuador via a safe path through Russia and other states.” 
 
 A former contractor for the National Security Agency, Snowden has presented the United States with a tantalizing and maddening mystery since he left Hong Kong early Sunday local time despite a request by the United States to detain him. 
 
 Journalists in Moscow have been led on one unsatisfying chase after another since Snowden arrived at the airport Sunday. About two-dozen of them bought tickets to the Monday flight to Havana — costing more than $2,000 each, round-trip — and were dismayed when the seat in Row 17 reportedly assigned to Snowden remained empty as the plane took off. Some hoped, apparently in vain, that he was wearing a disguise or hiding in a crew area of the Aeroflot Airbus. 
 
 With no clear information about Snowden’s plans, Russian media speculated that he would take the Tuesday flight to Havana and travel from there to South America. Another theory had it that the Russians were having second thoughts. 
 
 Carney said U.S. authorities were “in conversations” with their Russian counterparts regarding Snowden, who said he exposed a citizen surveillance program that he believed violated civil liberties. President Obama, in response to a reporter’s question, said only that the United States was “following the appropriate legal channels and working with various countries to make sure that all the rules are followed.” 
 
 Kerry, citing widespread Internet limits and human rights issues in Russia and China, said it was “no small irony” that Snowden was seeking cooperation from those countries in his quest to protect civil liberties. 
 
 “I hope it’s a good sign he isn’t on that flight,” Kerry said in the NBC interview, “and that something else may take place. But I’m not going to prejudge anything other than to say that obviously this is important to us. And I hope the right thing will happen.” 
 
 Kerry asserted that the United States had returned seven criminals wanted by Russia over the past few years. But the United States has also irritated Russia by refusing repeated requests to return Viktor Bout, convicted in New York of global arms smuggling and sentenced to 25 years in prison last year. 
 
 Assange said Ecuador had supplied Snowden with a “refugee document of passage” before his flight from Hong Kong, facilitating his travel to Moscow and, presumably, beyond. Assange described the move as an initial step in the process of seeking asylum and a necessary step given the revocation of Snowden’s passport by U.S. authorities. 
 
 Patiño, the Ecuadoran foreign minister, said his government was “in close contact with the Russian government” but did not have specific information about Snowden’s whereabouts. 
 
 Patiño said Ecuador, which has been sharply criticized for silencing journalists at home, was considering Snowden’s asylum request. He praised the former government contractor for disclosing the surveillance program and said Ecuador was free to exercise its sovereignty as it saw fit with regard to Snowden. 
 
 When asked if he was concerned about damaging his nation’s economic relationship with Washington, Patiño remained adamant. “Ecuador puts its principles above its economic interests,” he said. 
 
 Correa, the Ecuadoran president, has emerged as one of the most vehement critics of U.S. policy in the Western Hemisphere. In 2011, his administration expelled the American ambassador in Quito to protest a cable released by WikiLeaks that alleged that the Ecuadoran police force was rife with corruption. 
 
 Faiola reported from London. Karen DeYoung in New Delhi; Juan Forero in Bogota, Colombia; Jia Lynn Yang in Hong Kong; Phil Rucker, David Nakamura and Debbi Wilgoren in Washington; and Liu Liu in Beijing contributed to this report.
– Edward Snowden spent the night in Moscow's airport and was expected to fly to Cuba today—but American authorities are making it clear that they'd prefer that the NSA whistleblower was enjoying their hospitality instead. In a statement, the National Security Council said it expects Moscow to look at "all options available to expel Mr. Snowden back to the US to face justice" especially in light of "intensified cooperation after the Boston Marathon bombings and our history of working with Russia on law enforcement matters," CBS reports. But "intensified cooperation" may not be coming: The Washington Post reports that a Russian official today told Interfax that Moscow doesn't have the legal authority to comply with the US government's request. Other officials add that air travelers who don't cross passport control aren't technically on Russian land; because Snowden is without a Russian visa, there's no way he could have gone through passport control. John Kerry is chiming in, adds the AP, calling it "deeply troubling" if Russia allows Snowden to flee. But is Snowden actually Cuba-bound? The airline Aeroflot told the AP he was booked on a Moscow-Havana flight this morning (the expectation being he'd then travel to Venezuela and then to Ecuador, where WikiLeaks says he will seek asylum), prompting a number of journalists to grab seats on said flight. But Snowden apparently never boarded, reports Business Insider via an article with this headline: "Russia Just Punked a Bunch of Journalists Who Are Now On Their Way to Havana." AP Moscow correspondent Max Seddon confirmed that there was no sign of Snowden, tweeting, "Cuba here we come. Taxiing down Sheremetevo runway and no sign of Snowden. Seats empty still by 17A." How did Snowden get out of Hong Kong yesterday to begin with? Despite the Chinese territory's autonomy, the final decision came from Beijing, sources tell the New York Times. The move lets China save face while avoiding a drawn-out extradition battle. Some legal experts are telling the New York Times the US government goofed in waiting until Saturday to revoke Snowden's passport, though charges were filed June 14. Says a former federal prosecutor, "They missed an opportunity to freeze him in place." Still, the Times notes that Snowden may have still been able to fly to Moscow sans passport thanks to special refugee travel documents from Ecuador that WikiLeaks helped Snowden obtain.