United States President Joe Biden claimed on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had either fired or placed his advisers under house arrest over the country's performance in the Ukraine war.
The Democrat made the remarks about Putin's confidants after he spoke about his plans to lower U.S. energy prices. Biden was asked about how misinformed the Russian president was regarding his military's condition in Ukraine. But Biden said that his comments were made without absolute "certainty."
Vladimir Putin's Advisers
Biden said that there were plenty of rumors and speculations that Putin was self-isolating but said that there was not much evidence to back up the claims. The U.S. president's remarks come after the release of U.S. and UK intelligence reports on Wednesday.
The reports determined that Putin's advisers have lied to the Russian president regarding the performance of Moscow's military troops in Ukraine as the advances begin to stall. The recently declassified findings suggest that the Kremlin leader was now aware of the gap in information that was being given to him. However, there was still a lingering tension between Putin and his senior military officials, as per Politico.
The situation comes as Biden noted that there was no evidence that showed Putin ordered the withdrawal of his troops from positions around Ukraine's capital city of Kyiv. The Democratic leader's remarks come after he said he was authorizing the U.S. to release one million barrels of oil per day for the next six months.
The supply will be coming from the country's Strategic Petroleum Reserve and will be distributed in an attempt to alleviate rising gas prices. The U.S. president's comments echo those made by Defense Department spokesman John Kirby. The latter said that Russian troop movements represented a "repositioning, not a real withdrawal."
According to Yahoo News, Biden said that he was still skeptical of Putin's intentions in Ukraine and noted that the question of whether or not Russia was pulling back troops depended on how the situation was read. While the U.S. president said there was no evidence of Russian troops withdrawing, he noted the same can be said of Moscow beefing up its troops deployed in the Donbas area.
Russia-Ukraine War
During a press briefing, White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield was the one that suggested Putin's advisers were misleading him about the status of the war. She said that the Russian president's confidants were "too afraid to tell him the truth."
Bedingfield noted that the situation showed Russia's war has been a strategic blunder that has left the country weaker in the long term and more isolated on the world stage. Moscow's troops have struggled to move forward in Ukraine amid stalwart defenses, supply shortages, morale problems, and limited directions from officials.
Furthermore, Putin allegedly did not know that his troops were using and losing conscripted soldiers in the war. The official who cited previously classified information said that the situation showed a "clear breakdown in the flow of accurate information to the Russian president," Newsweek reported.
