“Joe Biden’s chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan emboldened Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine, a new book has claimed.
One of the US President’s top Russia experts allegedly made the warning after the head of the CIA visited Moscow in a last-ditch attempt to convince the Kremlin not to attack Ukraine.
Eric Green, a former senior director for Russia and central Asia on the US National Security Council, believed figures in Moscow believed Washington would not support Kyiv because Afghanistan was left to fall to the Taliban.
“I think it reinforced Putin’s conceptions about how easy it would be,” Mr Green said, according to an account of the trip by Bob Woodward, the veteran reporter who broke the story of the Watergate Scandal.
“Here’s a military force that’s been supported by the US for decades at that stage. They just collapsed. The Americans didn’t back them up.”
In his latest book, War, released on Tuesday, Mr Woodward writes that the US delegation, headed up by CIA chief Bill Burns, left Moscow thinking Putin had made up his mind to invade Ukraine.”
www.telegraph.co.uk
One of the US President’s top Russia experts allegedly made the warning after the head of the CIA visited Moscow in a last-ditch attempt to convince the Kremlin not to attack Ukraine.
Eric Green, a former senior director for Russia and central Asia on the US National Security Council, believed figures in Moscow believed Washington would not support Kyiv because Afghanistan was left to fall to the Taliban.
“I think it reinforced Putin’s conceptions about how easy it would be,” Mr Green said, according to an account of the trip by Bob Woodward, the veteran reporter who broke the story of the Watergate Scandal.
“Here’s a military force that’s been supported by the US for decades at that stage. They just collapsed. The Americans didn’t back them up.”
In his latest book, War, released on Tuesday, Mr Woodward writes that the US delegation, headed up by CIA chief Bill Burns, left Moscow thinking Putin had made up his mind to invade Ukraine.”
Biden’s chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal emboldened Putin to invade Ukraine, says bombshell book
One of US’s top Russia experts allegedly made warning after CIA chief visited Moscow in last-ditch attempt to convince Kremlin not to attack
www.telegraph.co.uk
