President Biden’s new spy chief is reportedly preparing a comprehensive intelligence assessment about Russia as his administration plans to renew a key nuclear pact with Moscow.
Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines is putting together an intelligence assessment about possible Russian interference in the 2020 election, alleged bounties on United States troops in Afghanistan, and the poisoning of Russian dissident leader Alexei Navalny, according to the Washington Post. This report will help guide Biden’s decisions on how to approach the country in the first days of his administration.
Haines, who was confirmed by the Senate just hours after Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday, will also be providing the new president an intelligence assessment on the massive SolarWinds hack, which breached the U.S. government and thousands of public and private customers late last year. While former President Donald Trump was in office, the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the National Security Agency, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a joint statement that said the hack was “likely Russian in origin.”
“We will use these assessments to inform our response to Russian aggression in the coming weeks,” a senior official said.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the ODNI and the State Department for comment and was referred to the National Security Council. A spokesperson at the NSC said the topic will likely be addressed by White House press secretary Jen Psaki during her press conference Thursday afternoon.
Biden and his team reportedly plan to extend a soon-expiring nuclear treaty between the U.S. and Russia. The New START Treaty is the last remaining treaty between the two countries that limits the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads and deployed strategic delivery systems. It is set to sunset on Feb. 5.
The administration has reportedly settled on a five-year extension of New START, which Antony Blinken, Biden’s nominee for secretary of state, has said allows the U.S. “tremendous access to data and inspections” and is “certainly in the national interest to extend.”
Biden is reportedly not planning a “reset” in relations with Moscow, as many presidents have done since the Cold War. The news comes after Navalny, who was poisoned in Russia with a nerve agent, was arrested upon his return to the country. This week, new national security adviser Jake Sullivan called for Navalny’s release, and Blinken said congressional sanctions against Russia would be “extremely helpful in being able to impose … costs and consequences” against Moscow.
