Obama Pressures Russia to Send Snowden to U.S.; Snowden Nowhere to be Found

President Barack Obama and his administration have been putting pressure on Russia to send the National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden back on a plane to the U.S., but it appears Snowden is headed to Ecuador to seek political asylum instead.

Russia remained defiant against U.S. pressure to send Snowden home. A spokesperson for President Vladimir Putin said Russia has no intention of intervening in the matter by keeping him in Russia or sending him back to the U.S.

A Russian security source confirmed the country will not be extraditing Snowden to the U.S. on Monday.

"Snowden has not committed any unlawful act on Russian territory," said Russian Intelligence Agent Novosti, quoting an unnamed security source Monday morning. "Russian law enforcement has no order to detain him, so there is no basis to do so."

Russian news site RT had originally reported Snowden was to fly out of Moscow to Havana, and then move on to Caracas, Venezuela. But Snowden was conspicuously absent from the flight -- he didn't even board, even though he had a seat registered under his name.

The Ecuador ministry and WikiLeaks, a website famous for leaking state secrets and is assisting Snowden, said Snowden will try to get himself to Ecuador instead. Ricardo Patino, Ecuador's foreign minister, confirmed Snowden had requested asylum in Ecuador. Patino said the request would be considered in the shortest time possible.

Ecuador also gave refuge to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at its embassy in London.

WikiLaks slammed the U.S. government for its behavior to Russia in a tweet posted Monday. "US bullying Russia for Snowden's rendition is counter-productive. No self-respecting state would accept such unlawful demands," read the tweet.

The former analyst was formally charged in federal court for espionage over the NSA leaks. He wascharged with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person, according to the criminal complaint.The latter two offenses can be punished by fines and up to 10 years in prison.