US spy chief says Ukraine war ‘corrosive’ for Putin; China can reshape international order
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A member of the National Liberation Movement showing his support for Russian President Vladimir Putin outside the Kremlin in Moscow.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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MOSCOW – Russia’s war in Ukraine has had a “corrosive” effect on Russian President Vladimir Putin, said United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director William Burns on Saturday, with discontent over the conflict creating a “once-in-a generation opportunity” for the spy agency.
Speaking at the Ditchley Foundation in Britain, Mr Burns called Mr Putin’s invasion of Ukraine “the most immediate and acute geopolitical challenge to international order today”.
The address came one week after the mercenary Wagner Group’s head Yevgeny Prigozhin led his forces in a brief mutiny against Russia’s military command.
In doing so, he accused Russia of targeting his forces with deadly missile strikes in Ukraine and launched broadsides against Moscow’s narrative of the conflict, saying it was started “for the self-promotion of a bunch of b*****ds” and that Russia’s troops were retreating in Ukraine’s east and south.
“The impact of those words and those actions will play out for some time, a vivid reminder of the corrosive effect of Putin’s war on his own society and his own regime,” Mr Burns said.
The CIA director called the war a “strategic failure” for Moscow that has exposed military weaknesses, hurt the economy and spurred a bigger and stronger Nato.
“Disaffection with the war will continue to gnaw away at the Russian leadership... That disaffection creates a once-in-a-generation opportunity for us at CIA,” he said.
“We’re not letting it go to waste,” he added, noting that the CIA recently posted on Telegram to let Russians know how to reach the agency via the Dark Web.
“We had 2.5 million views in the first week, and we’re very much open for business.”
Mr Burns did not mention a recent trip to Ukraine where he met intelligence counterparts and President Volodymyr Zelensky. The visit took place before Prigozhin’s insurrection.
Mr William Burns, who served as US ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008, cast the mutiny as an “armed challenge to the Russian state”.
PHOTO: REUTERS
In his speech, the spy chief also focused on China, which he called “the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do so”.
Mr Burns warned of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “growing repression at home and his aggressiveness abroad” and said the CIA has established a mission centre focused exclusively on the Asian power and more than doubled the percentage of its overall budget on China activities. AFP
