White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield outlined Wednesday that the Biden administration believes Russian military officials are misleading Russian President Vladimir Putin about the status of the war in Ukraine.
Bedingfield’s claim echoed reporting that surfaced earlier that morning about how Russian military officials are afraid of explaining specific losses to Putin to avoid punishment.
“We have information that Putin felt misled by the Russian military, which has resulted in persistent tension between Putin and his military leadership,” she stated during Wednesday’s press briefing. “We believe that Putin is being misinformed by his advisers about how badly the Russian military is performing and how the Russian economy has been crippled by sanctions because his senior advisers are too afraid to tell him the truth.”
Bedingfield would not say if President Joe Biden himself made the decision to declassify the information but added that “it is increasingly clear that Putin’s war has been a strategic blunder that has left Russia weaker over the long term and increasingly isolated on the world stage.”
“I do think that making this information public contributes to an understanding that this has been a strategic failure for Russia,” she continued. “Obviously, we will continue to pursue our strategy of imposing severe costs on Russia and trying to strengthen Ukraine on the battlefield and at the negotiating table.”
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You can watch Wednesday’s entire briefing below:
