‘Structural weaknesses lie behind Russian defences in Ukraine,’ says CIA Chief
US Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns said Thursday that he remains optimistic Ukraine will be able to make advances its counteroffensive against Russia, based on the intelligence he has reviewed. Russia suffers from some significant “structural weaknesses" behind the considerable defenses it has built up, Burns said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado. Those weaknesses include poor morale, poor generalship and “disarray" among its political and military leadership.
“It is going to be a tough slog, but we’re going to do everything we can as an intelligence agency to provide the kind of intelligence support and sharing that’s going to help the Ukrainians to make progress," Burns said. Burns said that mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutiny in June had “exposed some of the significant weaknesses in the system that Putin has built." “For a lot of Russians watching this used to this image of Putin as the arbiter of order, the question was does the emperor have no clothes or at least why does it take so long for him to get dressed," Burns said. Burns’ comments echoed remarks earlier this week by Sir Richard Moore, the head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, known at MI6.
Moore said that Putin’s government was beset by “venality, infighting and callous incompetence" and that the aftermath of Prigozhin’s mutiny had been “humiliating" to Putin. Putin will likely try to avoid giving the impression that he is overreacting to the mutiny, while trying to extract what he can of value from Prigozhin’s Wagner network, Burns said. Still, Burns said Prigozhin is likely to see retribution from Putin at some point.
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