Irish Examiner view: US playing a subtle game against Putin

Putin has said that no dialogue will take place until the US and other allies recognise that annexed territories in Ukraine are now part of Russia, but his options continue to narrow

Few of the US president’s advisers — or even Biden himself — envisaged any response from the Kremlin other than the one they got. Picture: Susan Walsh/AP

It is said that, during wartime, the truth exists only in the shadows and it just may be that, in the play he made last week — offering to speak of peace directly to Vladimir Putin — US president Joe Biden was trying to draw truth out of darkness.

The typically frosty response the offer received from the Kremlin was as understandable as it was expected, but there are signs — not least the ban on Russian crude oil shipments which came into force yesterday, along with a price cap of $60 per barrel, as well as falling approval in his country for the war — that Putin’s options continue to narrow.