Fallout from Russia granting Snowden asylum likely to be limited

Russia's decision to grant asylum to Edward Snowden has upset the Obama administration and enraged the US Congress.

However, if the United States wasn't prepared to scrap its maddeningly difficult relationship with Russia because of missile defence, human rights or Syria's civil war, it's unlikely the 30-year-old National Security Agency leaker alone will sour ties irrevocably between two powers that have both moved past their half-century cold war for global supremacy.

After Snowden left the transit zone of Moscow's airport and officially entered Russia on Thursday, the White House declared itself "extremely disappointed" and suggested US President Barack Obama would reconsider his autumn summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

American lawmakers threatened worse, from demanding Russia forfeit its right to host a summit of the world's biggest economies to questioning whether Washington and Moscow can now cooperate at all. Some in Congress have spoken of boycotting next year's Winter Olympics in the southern Russian city of Sochi.

"Russia's action today is a disgrace and a deliberate effort to embarrass the United States. It is a slap in the face of all Americans," Republican Senator John McCain said. "Now is the time to fundamentally rethink our relationship with Putin's Russia."