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In the deal to release Griner, Putin used a familiar lever: pain

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The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, he wants to continue his war in Ukraine the same way he won the freedom of a major Russian arms dealer on Thursday:

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inflicting so much pain on Western governments that they eventually come to an agreement.

The Kremlin has been lobbying for more than a decade for Victor Boutconvicted in 2011 of conspiring to kill Americans, was released from prison in the United States.

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But it wasn’t until this year, with the American basketball star’s arrest at a Moscow airport Britney Grinerwhen Putin found leverage to get his way.

On Thursday, pro-Kremlin voices hailed Bout’s release, in a prisoner exchange with Griner, as a victory, a sign that regardless of its desire to punish Russia for war in Ukraine, the United States will continue to come to the table. US interests are at stake.

Russia negotiated from “a position of strength, comrades‘, Maria Butina, a pro-Putin lawmaker who served a sentence in a US prison, posted on messaging app Telegram.

Putin’s new strategy in Ukraine, after the repeated failures of his army, increasingly resembles the strategy that finally brought Bout back to Moscow.

is bombing the Energy infrastructure of Ukraine and taking its citizens hostage, while trying to break the spirit of the country.

The tactic threatens the European Union with a new wave of refugees, while Putin uses a familiar economic lever: to stifle gas exports.

And Putin is betting that the West, even after showing much more unity in support of Ukraine than Putin seems to have expected, will end up get tired of the fight and its negative economic effects.

There are no guarantees that the strategy will work.

Source: Clarin

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