In the most detailed public account yet given by a U.S. official, the director of the C.I.A.
offered a biting assessment on Thursday of the damage done to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia by the mutiny of the Wagner mercenary group, saying the rebellion had revived questions about his judgment and detachment from events.
Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum, an annual national security conference, William J. Burns, the C.I.A.
director, said that for much of the 36 hours of the rebellion last month, Russian security services, the military and decision makers “appeared to be adrift.”“For a lot of Russians watching this, used to this image of Putin as the arbiter of order, the question was ‘Does the emperor have no clothes?’” Mr. Burns said, adding, “Or at least ‘Why is it taking so long for him to get dressed?’”Mr. Burns’s remarks on the Kremlin’s paralysis during the uprising carried out by Yevgeny V. Prigozhin and his mercenary group built on comments a day earlier from his British counterpart, Richard Moore, the chief of MI6, who said the rebellion showed cracks in Mr. Putin’s rule.
Persons:
Vladimir V, Putin, Wagner, William J, Burns, “, Mr, Burns’s, Yevgeny V, Prigozhin, Richard Moore, Putin’s
Organizations:
U.S, Aspen Security Forum
Locations:
Russia