He did have a choice to not support russian genocidal imperialism

And I'm saying neither you or I know the consequences of making a different choice. Given what has happened to other public figures who oppose Russian interests (e.g. Navalny), I can't take anything Snowden says without a grain of salt, because it's impossible to know what's genuinely his opinion and what Russia wants us to hear.

If pressured to guess, I'm going to assume that Russia has made it clear that saying anything against Russian interests won't end well for him. I don't see him as a credible source for much of anything anymore, since he's certainly under Russia's thumb.