They are closed their airspace in coordinated effort to land the plane within reach of authorities searching for Snowden. It's same.

Plane could have returned to Russia (and probably would if Snowden was aboard)

Not defending it, especially the alleged search once it landed, but it was very different to a hoax bomb threat on a commercial plane

The general question is - can you alter the other country’s airplane path to pursue political goals? And the answer is yes.