President misinformed
US government: Advisors are afraid of Putin
03/31/2022 02:09 am
Even beforehand, Russia’s president seems to have misjudged the risks of an invasion of Ukraine. And even now, the White House believes that those around him are sparing him with honest assessments of the situation. This is a cause for concern for the US government.
According to the US government, Russian President Vladimir Putin has not received an honest description of the situation in the Ukraine war from his advisers. White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield said, citing intelligence information, “We believe he is misinformed by his advisers about how poorly the Russian military is performing and how the sanctions are crippling the Russian economy.” Putin’s senior advisers are “too afraid to tell him the truth.”
Bedingfield further said that according to intelligence information, Putin felt deceived by the Russian military, causing ongoing tensions between the Russian president and his military leadership. Bedingfield was not more specific. When asked why the US government is disclosing this information, she said it is to help build the bigger picture and understanding that attacking Ukraine is a major strategic mistake by Russia.
US Defense Department spokesman John Kirby said there was concern if Putin was misinformed or uninformed about what was happening in Ukraine. “It’s his military. It’s his war. He chose it.” The fact that the Russian President may not be fully aware of all the connections and may not fully understand the extent to which his forces are failing in Ukraine is troubling.
The head of the British secret and security service Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Jeremy Fleming, also sees Putin as having been misinformed. Russian soldiers disobeyed orders in Ukraine, sabotaged their own equipment and accidentally shot down one of their own planes. “Putin misjudged the situation massively,” Fleming said in a speech at the Australian National University in Canberra. “We believe that Putin’s advisers are afraid to tell him the truth.” “There is evidence that Russian soldiers’ morale is low and their equipment is poor,” Fleming said.