The CIA on Tuesday described Russian President Vladimir Putin as both isolated and furious regarding the situation in Ukraine.
• Read also: [VIDÉO] ‘We will fight to the end’: Zelensky greeted with standing ovation from UK parliament
• Read also: McDonald’s closes its restaurants, the pressure mounts on the American groups which remain in Russia
• Read also: [EN DIRECT] 13th day of war in Ukraine: here are all the developments
“I think Putin is angry and frustrated right now. It is likely that he will redouble his efforts and try to crush the Ukrainian army without worrying regarding civilian casualties,” Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director William Burns testified before Congress on Tuesday. American.
So much so that he predicted that the next few weeks would be “awful” in Ukraine.
Closure of airspace, freezing of assets of personalities or companies, prohibition of financial and commercial transactions: since the start of hostilities in Ukraine, Western countries have increased economic sanctions once morest Vladimir Putin, his relatives, as well as the economy Russian.
President Joe Biden also decided on Tuesday to ban imports of Russian hydrocarbons, leading a Western assault once morest his most precious source of income (to read on page 34). The decision was made “in close coordination” with US allies, he said.
Under mounting pressure, more than 280 major companies with a significant presence in Russia have decided to in turn suspend their operations in the country, including L’Oréal, Starbucks and Adidas. McDonald’s announced on Tuesday the temporary closure of its 850 restaurants.
He can’t lose her
Obviously, the war is not going as quickly as the Russian president might have wished.
Except that Putin “feels like this is a war he can’t afford to lose,” insisted US intelligence chief Avril Haines, also before Congress. But what he might be willing to accept as a win might change over time. »
“We believe that Putin suffers from the West’s lack of deference to him,” she added.
Invading Ukraine resulted for the Russian president from a “deep personal conviction”, also assured Mr. Burns, the Russian president having, according to him, hatched “for many years an explosive mixture of grievances and ambition”.
Radicalize the enemy
But restraining Russia economically can “play both ways”, points out Benjamin Deruelle, professor of history at UQAM.
“It deprives her of finances to fight the war, which is good, but it can also push her to try to go further to get out of it,” he explains. [Jusqu’à maintenant] the sanctions only pushed it towards a kind of radicalism. »
“It’s possible that backed once morest the wall [Poutine] become more dangerous, adds Charles-Philippe David, founder of the Raoul-Dandurand Chair in Strategic and Diplomatic Studies. Of course, can we step back and let it happen? No. There is a fine line between doing the right thing and not doing too much to cause it. »
Except that in addition to always being a little more isolated on the international scene, the Russian president is also isolated from a personal point of view. The circle of advisers with which he surrounds himself is “increasingly narrow”, according to the director of the CIA.
“It’s a system in which it’s generally not good for people’s careers to question or challenge their [Poutine] judgement,” he said.
Significant difficulties
Even Russia’s few allies had not anticipated “the significant difficulties that the Russians were going to encounter”, continued Mr. Burns.
According to him, even China, which maintains good relations with Moscow, is “worried” regarding the impact that its proximity to the Putin regime might have on its “reputation”, also closely monitoring possible repercussions on the Chinese economy.
“If China decides tomorrow that it opposes what Putin is doing, in terms of isolation, the carrots are done,” concludes Mr. David.
Heavy fighting and shelling continued in major cities on Tuesday. Again, Moscow announced Tuesday local ceasefires this morning in several cities to allow civilians to leave the trapped cities.
