On Friday’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Your World,” former Secretary of Defense and former CIA Director Leon Panetta called on the Biden administration to give the U.S. the leverage it lacks to free Americans. He called for “getting tough” against Russian espionage in the United States. He is being held in Russia and says, “When it comes to the spies we have in this country, we have to confront President Putin with force and basically shut him down.”
“We have to play a tough game to make it clear that President Putin is not going to get away with a game like this,” Panetta said.
he added, “[F]According to my own experience, when I was director of the CIA, we were able to capture about 10 Russian spies. And it didn’t take long for the Russians to try to establish some sort of exchange. And what we did was ultimately us. We had 10 spies, so we got some of our own people back. So, in the end, we will proceed with the replacement work. That’s why I think it’s so important that the United States is able to take a hard line here. If you look at the Russian embassy in this country, there are a lot of spies attached to the embassy. And I think we need to get tough on those who are spying for the United States and make it clear that that’s not possible as long as the Russians have Evan in their custody. It’s sure to be a tough match. President Putin loves this barter game. He loves the leverage here. Basically, we have to get tough on President Putin and shut him up about the spies he has in this country. ”
“Putin is pretty much a hardliner and for some reason we don’t have that much influence,” Panetta added. We need to develop some influence here and, frankly, be able to arrest some of his spies so he has a reason to come to the negotiating table. ”
“I think you have to show President Putin that if you don’t provide Evan and release Evan, you’re going to suffer the consequences. That’s the only game he understands,” Panetta said. “We have to release Evan,” he concluded. , he will suffer some serious consequences. That’s the only way to convince Putin to do something, and that’s what we have to do. We just have to be tough on Putin. ”
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