The health of Russian President Vladimir Putin was the subject of intense discussions within the administration of US President Joe Biden after the intelligence community released its fourth comprehensive assessment at the end of May, according to the American magazine “Newsweek”.
The classified assessment says that Putin appears to have resurfaced after undergoing treatment in April for cancer, according to three US intelligence chiefs briefed on the reports.
Officials say the assessments also confirm an assassination attempt against Putin last March, in the midst of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The magazine stresses that high-ranking officials, who represent three separate intelligence agencies, worry that Putin is increasingly paranoid about his grip on power, a situation that makes the course of the war in Ukraine difficult and unpredictable.
But they also stress that this makes the odds of a nuclear war rather low.
The magazine quotes a senior intelligence officer with direct access to the reports as saying that “Putin’s fist is strong, but no longer as absolute” as it once was.
The three officials, one from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the other a retired senior Air Force officer and the third working for the Defense Department’s intelligence agency, warn that the Russian leader’s isolation makes it difficult for US intelligence to make an accurate assessment of his health.
“One of our best sources of intelligence, his meetings with Western leaders, ended largely as a result of the war in Ukraine,” says the senior CIA official, who asked not to be identified.
And the retired commander in the Air Force warns against moving forward with too much optimism regarding Putin’s health and the possibility of his near death, calling for lessons to be taken from what happened with al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
The magazine notes that the United States previously possessed questionable information regarding the decline in bin Laden’s health and that he was dying, as well as information regarding Saddam Hussein’s possession of weapons of mass destruction, all of which proved to be inaccurate.
“Putin is certainly sick, but will he die soon? This is just speculation,” the CIA official says.
Last Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied speculation that Putin was ill, saying that there were no indications that he had any disease.
Putin’s health, who will turn 70 in October, and his private life are taboo topics in Russia that are not discussed in public.
Putin, who has ruled Russia for more than two decades, ordered his troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, where the Russian offensive killed thousands and triggered the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two.