CIA Director Dismisses Putin Health Rumors
The CIA’s top spy on Thursday dismissed persistent speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin is suffering from medical issues as he wages an unprovoked and brutal military campaign in Ukraine.
“There are lots of rumors about President Putin’s health,” CIA Director William Burns said during a talk at the Aspen Security Forum. “As far as we can tell, he’s entirely too healthy.”
Putin is, however, deeply misguided in his justification for launching the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Burns said, before ultimately specifying that his comments do not represent “a formal intelligence judgment.”
“His views have hardened,” Burns said, “but he’s got his own way of looking at reality. And as we could see in the first stages of this war, it was based on some profoundly...