Sunday, June 9, 2019

In Raising Stakes and Bluffing, Putin is Negotiating Much as Trump Does, Felgengauer Says


Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 7 – Pavel Felgengauer, an independent Moscow security analyst, says that Vladimir Putin’s remarks about the possibility that Russia and the US may not extend arms control agreements are all about raising the stakes and bluffing in the hopes that Washington will offer Moscow more than it has to get its way.

            In this, the analyst says, Putin is acting very much as US President Donald Trump often does, thus creating a situation in which the leaders of the two nuclear powers are each using the same tactics,  something that could lead to an escalation of problems because each will take a position he would find it difficult to retreat (rosbalt.ru/world/2019/06/07/1785760.html).

            Moreover, this approach by the two may mean that ever more issues will be wrapped together as part of any agreement, making it more difficult to achieve, requiring the personal intervention of the top figures on the two sides, and possibly having consequences for many issues far from the central one.

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