The US has let Snowden linger in the Moscow airport, likely hoping that he'll do something stupid due to the stress.
By reminding everyone of the dead man switch, Snowden (via Greenwald) reminds the US that both have a shared interest in Snowden's asylum bid moving along smoothly.
Your conjecture above depends entirely on the idea that Snowden is unsafe at the Moscow airport.
2) wildly speculative and wildly inconsistent with all of Greenwald's other behavior.
3) I imagine you have some kind of conspiracy theory to justify this one?
In this case, the simplest answer is that a dead man's switch gives Snowden a bit of additional leverage, and that Greenwald mentioned it to help the reporter interviewing him understand the dynamics of the situation.
I just re-read it a third time and do not see what you're referring to. If you'll humor me and paste in the relevant paragraph I'll give it extra attention and (I hope) admit if I was wrong above.
The US has let Snowden linger in the Moscow airport, likely hoping that he'll do something stupid due to the stress.
By reminding everyone of the dead man switch, Snowden (via Greenwald) reminds the US that both have a shared interest in Snowden's asylum bid moving along smoothly.
Your conjecture above depends entirely on the idea that Snowden is unsafe at the Moscow airport.