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Putin's officials too afraid to tell him truth of the war against Ukraine: US
Russian President Vladimir Putin has not been given true information about the ground reality of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war as the Kremlin does not have officials who can speak the truth to power, the White House believes.
Russian President Vladimir Putin indeed is in dark about the ground reality of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and especially how Russia has been faring in the conflict, as Putin's officials are too afraid to tell him the truth, the White House said citing some declassified US intelligence. The findings also indicate a "persistent tension" between Putin and his ministry of defence, a senior US official said.
Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu, whose sudden disappearance triggered speculations, is also not any more aligned with Putin, the US findings have confirmed. Ukraine claimed Shoigu had suffered a heart attack after he had a heated confrontation with Putin, which Kremlin dismissed.
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"We believe (Putin is) being misinformed by his advisors about how badly the Russian military is performing and how the Russian economy is being crippled by sanctions, because, again, the senior advisors are too afraid to tell him the truth," White House communications director Kate Bedingfield said, as quoted by news agency AFP.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has talked about the US intelligence report and said that Putin has always been given less than truthful information from his advisers. “With regard to President Putin, look, what I can tell you is this, and I said this before, one of the Achilles' heel of autocracies is that you don’t have people in those systems who speak truth to power or who have the ability to speak truth to power. And I think that is something that we’re seeing in Russia," Blinken said.
Officials who spoke to New York Times said Putin is facing isolation in Kremlin and there are many reasons behind it. Putin himself maintained strict social distancing from his officials during the pandemic which resulted in his key officials becoming cold towards him. Putin also publicly rebukes his officials who do not subscribe to his opinion forcing his senior lieutenants to mostly share with him half-information or information that will only cheer him up.
As Russia is repositioning itself in the ongoing war, moving from Kyiv, US intelligence claims that Putin is genuinely not aware about the huge loss that his military has seen in the last one month. He is also not aware that Russian military has been using conscripts in Ukraine revealing a "clear breakown in the flow of accurate information"
