Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned on Friday that more prisoner swaps with the U.S. could be possible if the right compromise is struck. He continued his statement that Russia isn’t refusing “to continue this work in the future,” as he discussed the high-profile trade that took place this week. Though during her briefing of the trade, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had said that “unfortunately, the choice became to either bring Britteny home or no one.” This comes after major pushback on the White House as Marine Paul Whelan was left in Russia as Britteny was traded and brought back to the county.
While Putin’s comments may be just talk as they hardly wanted to trade. It seemed more so that they just wanting Bout back. Rebekah Koffler, a Russia expert and form DIA intelligence officer for Russian Doctrine & Strategy, warned that these comments Putin made could just be to capitalize on “what he, his regime, and the Russian people [see] as a big ‘win.”
Bout may have just been someone Putin needed back in the county. Bout, a former GRU intelligence officer, has ties to Putin through his time as a KGB operative who now may be the key in getting Russia an arms deal through international suppliers as the county faced a shortage of supplies in their war against Ukraine.
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