The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said Wednesday that Putin had been misled by the Russian military and that there was “persistent tension” between him and senior Russian officials.
The official did not elaborate on the details of how the US Secret Service conducted the investigation.
But the intelligence community has concluded that Putin was unaware that the military was using and losing troops in Ukraine. They also found that Putin was not fully aware of the extent to which the Russian economy was suffering from economic sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies.
The findings show a “clear collapse in the flow of accurate information” to Putin and show that Putin’s top advisers are “afraid to tell him the truth,” the official said.
The news comes after the White House on Tuesday expressed skepticism about Russia’s public announcement that it would withdraw its operations near Kyiv in a bid to boost confidence in ongoing talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials in Turkey.
“We will see,” Biden said of the announcement. “I do not read anything until I see what their actions are.”
Russian forces pounded areas around the Ukrainian capital and another city overnight, regional leaders said Wednesday.
White House communications director Kate Bedingfield said the government considered any move by Russian forces to be a “reshuffle, not a withdrawal” and “no one should be fooled by Russia’s announcement.”
Biden was scheduled to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday to discuss the latest developments in the war.
Putin has long been considered an outsider outside Russia and surrounded by officials who do not always tell him the truth. U.S. officials have said they believe the limited flow of information – which may have been exacerbated by Putin’s heightened isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic – may have given the Russian president unrealistic views on how quickly he could to surpass Ukraine.
Before the war, the Biden administration launched an unprecedented effort to publicize what it believed were Putin’s invasion plans, based on intelligence findings. As Russia continued to invade, the White House was widely credited with drawing attention to Ukraine and pushing initially reluctant allies to support harsh sanctions that have hit the Russian economy hard.
But by underscoring the limits of intelligence, the United States has also underestimated Ukraine’s willingness to fight before the invasion, said Lt. Gen. Scott Brier, head of the Defense Intelligence Service, in a recent statement to Congress.
