New Putin Seeks Old Putin's Leverage In A Changing World

New Putin Seeks Old Putin's Leverage In A Changing World

Russian President Vladimir Putin has gotten the results he wanted and could well be his country’s leader for another 16 years, if he lives that long. But not all things have been going his way. He has suffered setbacks in the international arena, has watched his economy suffer a significant slowdown because of oil prices and the pandemic and has experienced the lowest levels of approval since he rose to power two decades ago. Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan has embarrassed Putin’s efforts to back rebel forces in Libya; Syria’s Assad now has protests in areas once considered loyal to him; Russia discovered that Chinese spies were trying to steal Russian research secrets; European and U.S. countries have offered pushback against Russia’s efforts to destabilize those countries; and the virus, an oil spill in the Arctic region and a backdown in his conflict with Saudi Arabia over oil prices have dented his reputation as invincible. But he got his referendum. Now he will turn attention to exploiting weaknesses anywhere he sees them, which means conflicts and mischief from the Kremlin anywhere in the world Putin sees vulnerabilities, and in the era of worldwide pandemic, that could be almost anywhere.

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