they are freeing many convicted prisoners

Many people that should never have been locked up in the first place.

will not demand Ukraine to take any particular internal actions in return for financial help

Except cut off their gas supply if they do not go with Russia.

While corruption in the USA grows unchallenged, the Russian Federation is in the second decade of a campaign to root it out both high and low.

Somehow, mysteriously, rooting out corruption is mostly successful against opponents of Putin.