A high profile political-ish person cannot live there without interference from government. You are naive on the subject or deliberately lying if you do not believe that is true. Information on this is easily accessible to you. Especially after Ukraine, when there's so many stories of prominent Russians being labelled "foreign agents" by their government for merely having opinions.
It is not an exaggeration to say it's like Nazi Germany there now. Even well before, they were doing political assassinations at home and abroad and false flags in Chechnya. Snowden and Greenwald both are clearly on the wrong side of that issue. It was clear even in 2013 if you were paying attention that Putin's Russia was less free than the United States. So it's a very, very strange thing to do to move there after being concerned about civil liberties.
It's not Snowden's fault he is in Russia, but it's important to not be blind to the reality of the situation. We should have protected him as a wistleblower but "even" obama seemed willing to throw him to the wolves. The fact we didn't burn down the capitol when they revoked his passport means we are all culpable in this. Nothing will get better unless we take responsibility for the government we have allowed to fester, and unless we band together and march together, this will continue.
Here's another possible interpretation of this. Why didn't the Obama Administration show him leniency? eg. They commuted Chelsea Manning's sentence and released her early. Why not similar for Snowden? Is it possible that they knew something about him that the rest of us do not?