That reminds me of Putin a little bit. Even if you think some leader is an asshole, sometimes you need an asshole to stand up to an even bigger bully. I just imagine someone like former president Medvedev (and with no Putin in sight) would've offered Snowden to US government on a silver platter, just like France, Spain, Portugal and Italy tried to do (fortunately unsuccessfully). I remember I was very much against Putin when he fought the US' anti-rocket shield, but over the past few years I've started to understand why he would do that. No country should own the whole world.
I don't think mtgox was implying principle, just a willingness to resist, even for the wrong reasons. ("You can't imprison dissidents. That's my job.")
You might find some of what you're looking for on the wikipedia page I linked to. But courts are only very rarely the place where accusations against heads of states are examined, especially when it comes to superpowers.
Anyone who serves in a role as top leader of a country or large corporation is an asshole -- it's a job requirement.
What you're seeing in Putin is the ability to be independent. He gets to enjoy watching the Americans squirm at low cost. What's the US going to do to Russia? Our diplomats will be rude to each other, maybe we won't attend the Russian summer ball and snub the Russian ambassador, each country will declare some spies persona non grata.
At the end of the day, the areas in which the Russians and Americans cooperate are areas that they have a mutual interest to do so.
Others, like the Germans or Spain are different. They piss off the US, we cut off the faucet of intelligence, money, privileges, etc.
For those who know Formula 1, I think Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley are the sort of examples that might work. Of course, some would say they are and were the bullies that needed standing up to. Heh, I suppose that gets us to the terrorist / freedom fighter type debate!!!
