The American President, Joe Bidensaid this Thursday that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putincould be “isolated” and have put some advisers under “house arrest”, although he indicated that he had no irrefutable proof of this.
Biden also said he was “skeptical” about Moscow’s announcements of a partial withdrawal of its troops from Ukraine.
“He appears to be isolated and there are indications that he has fired or placed under house arrest some of his advisers,” Biden told reporters when asked about British and US intelligence statements indicating that Putin is not receiving adequate information about the difficulties in Ukraine.
Biden moderated his comments, saying “there’s a lot of speculation” and that he didn’t want to “make too much of that.”
However, the spokesman for Department of StateNed Price later said they have seen reports that various Russian officials have been sidelined, “sidelined” or “distanced,” or “as the president alluded to, even placed under house arrest.”
Price said the invasion of Ukraine it reinforced the theory that Putin was making decisions based on bad advice.
This, considering that the Russians apparently did not expect strong resistance and were surprised by the ferocity of Western sanctions.
“We have reason to believe that President Putin feels cheated. Putin, if you look at the record over the course of the last five weeks or so, clearly made a number of miscalculations,” Price said.
“Why else would he have launched an invasion that was quite clear would precipitate a whole series of consequences that we had foreseen in advance? It is clear that he miscalculated if he thought his forces would be capable of achieving a quick tactical victory,” he added.
In his comments to the press, Biden also said he was unsure of the Russians’ intentions in Ukraine after Moscow announced a withdrawal from the capital kyiv and another city.
The president affirmed that it is also possible that the withdrawal from some points of Ukraine, if it occurs, will be ordered only to allow an increase in attacks in another point, such as the eastern region of Donbas.
“I’m a little skeptical. It’s not clear if he’s really retiring,” he said.