Biden says Putin may have fired some advisers or put them under house arrest
US President Joe Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin might have fired many of his advisors or put them under house arrest as the country is going on with its invasion of Ukraine.
“He seems to be self-isolated and there’s some indication that he has fired or put under house arrest some of his advisers,” Biden said commenting on US intelligence reports that Putin was not being given correct information about the ground reality of the war situation. Amid many speculations over Putin’s wealth, mental state, a comment coming from the US President carries significance knowing which Biden said he did not want to “put too much stock in that”.
US state department spokesperson Ned Price added to the statement and said there are reports on Russian officials being sidelined and the present status of the conflict is enough to prove that Biden misjudged and was misled. “We have seen reports that various Russian officials have been sidelined, are estranged, have been essentially put on ice or, as the president alluded to, have even been placed under house arrest,” Ned Price said.
“We have reason to believe that President Putin does feel misled. President Putin, if you look at the track record over the course of the past five or so weeks, clearly made several miscalculations,” Price said.
“Why else would he have undertaken an invasion that was quite clear would precipitate a whole series of consequences that we laid out in advance? He clearly miscalculated if he thought his forces would be able to achieve a quick tactical victory,” Price added.
US intelligence reports said Kremlin officials are too afraid to tell him the truth about how Russia is bungling on the ground and how the country is major economic crisis owing to the sanctions imposed.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said it is dangerous if Putin does not have the full picture of the war. “Obviously we don’t want them to do well on the battlefield, but not good when you have a guy like Mr Putin with not all the information available to him as he prosecutes the war and sits down in negotiations with the Zelenskyy administration,” Kirby said on Fox News. “You want to make sure that those negotiations can be done in good faith and then fully informed. So, it’s not helpful, it’s disconcerting, frankly, the idea he might not have all the information about how poorly he is doing inside Ukraine,” Kirby said.