Biden says Putin is ‘self-isolated’, claims he has ‘fired’ or arrested advisors’
Biden says Putin is ‘self-isolated’, claims he has ‘fired’ or arrested advisors and says Russia is adding forces in Donbas and there’s no evidence he is pulling back from Kyiv
The White House said this week Putin ‘felt misled by the Russian military’Russia has suffered battle losses in Ukraine with evident failures in supply and tactics Biden said it was an ‘open question’ how badly Putin was being misinformedBut he said he seems to be ‘self isolating’He said there were indications Putin fired or arrested advisorsRussian Defense Minister Sergie Shoigu wasn’t seen for 12 days before turning up in a Kremlin video Saturday
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President Joe Biden stoked a declassified intelligence that Russian President Vladimir Putin is getting bad information from his advisors – and said the ‘isolated’ strongman may have locked up some of his advisors.
Biden spoke directly about his counterpart’s potential state of mind after the White House tried to clean up his comments Saturday in Warsaw when Biden said emphatically that Putin ‘cannot remain in power.’
Biden was asked asked about Wednesday’s reports based on declassified information that Putin was being ‘misled’ by his advisors and military leadership, and how badly Putin was being misinformed.
‘That’s an open question,’ the president responded. ‘There’s a lot of speculation. But he seems to be – I’m not saying this with a certain he seems to be self-isolated. And there’s some indication that he has fired or put under house arrest some of his advisers.’
Then he hedged: ‘But I don’t want to put too much stock in at this time. Because we don’t have that much hard evidence.’
President Joe Biden said Vladimir Putin ‘seems to be self-isolated’ and said there was ‘some indication that he has fired or put under house arrest some of his advisers’
Video images of Putin when meeting in person with top officials have featured the ruler seated at comically long tables, amid reports he is fearful of contracting covid. ‘Self-isolation,’ the term Biden used, also has a medical connotation for those who may have come in contact with a transmissible disease.
There were mysterious reports that coincided with Biden’s trip to Europe about the apparent disappearance of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
He appeared to have vanished for 12 days amid Russia’s brutal invasion.
On Saturday, the day of Biden’s big speech in Warsaw, Shoigu turned up in an official Kremlin video with top officials, including head of the joint staff Valery Gerasimov.
Shoigu is thought to be close to Putin and has even been mentioned as a possible successor.
On Wednesday, White House communications director Kate Bedingfield commented on intelligence about Putin that appeared in the morning attributed to an unidentified administration official.
Why the long table? Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘seems to be self-isolated’
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu wasn’t seen for days, then resurfaced at a meeting Saturday
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a concert marking the 8th anniversary of Crimea’s reunification with Russia at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow, Russia, 18 March 2022
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, listens to French President Emmanuel Macron during their meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 7, 2022
Local residents walk near an apartment building destroyed during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine March 30, 2022
A gas station burns after Russian attacks in the city of Kharkiv, on March 30, 2022, amid Russian invasion of Ukraine
‘We have information that Putin felt misled by the Russian military, which has resulted in persistent tension between Putin and his military leadership,’ she said.
‘We believe that Putin is being misinformed by his advisers about how badly the Russian military is performing and how the Russian economy is being crippled by sanctions because his senior advisors are too afraid to tell him the truth.’
Military experts have expressed astonishment at Russia’s inability so far to achieve its military objectives. Russia indicated it was pulling back from Kyiv, a city it appeared to be trying to encircle, with an intention of focusing on Ukraine’s east.
Biden indicated there is no evidence Russia is actually pulling back from Kyiv, and that it appeared to be adding forces in the Donbas, where Russian separatists have been waging a war for years.
Biden came back to address reporters after walking away from his event about actions to reduce gas prices.
‘The question whether he’s pulling back his forces depends on how you read exactly what’s going on,’ said Biden.
‘Thus far, there is no clear evidence that he’s pulling all of his forces out of Kyiv. There is also evidence that he is beefing up his troops down in the Donbas area. Depending on your view of Putin, I’m a little skeptical. It’s an open question whether he’s actually pulling back and going to say I’m just going to focus on the Donbas and not worried about the rest of the country,’ the president said.
‘I’m a skeptic. But I don’t have proof that in fact he is not going — he’s taking a pause doing all he can to use all the troops he has in the Donbas and continue to keep an eye on and try to move beyond the rest of the country. Don’t know the answer, but it appears so far that he has not pulled all of – the idea he’s pulling all the troops from around Kyiv and moving south, there’s no evidence that he’s done that,’ Biden said.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby added later Thursday that ‘Kiev is still a central focus of their airstrikes.’
