Thread by @haynesdeborah

Up now at #AspenSecurity - CIA Director William Burns

The CIA Director says Russia is seeking to buy armed drones from Iran. Commenting on Putin’s visit this week to Iran, Bill Burns says the 2 heavily sanctioned countries need each other. But he says there is a limit on the way they can help one another

Bill Burns says during his career - including as envoy to Russia - he’s watched Putin stew. He has grievances, grudges, insecurities. “He’s a big believer in control, intimidation & getting even” qualities that have hardened as his grip on power grows & circle of advisers tighten

Asked about Vladimir Putin’s health - following unproven speculation the Russia President has been ill, CIA Director Bill Burns quips: “He’s too healthy” - adding this is his “informal intelligence judgement”

CIA Director Bill Burns says latest view on Russian casualties in Ukraine war is around 15,000 dead and 3x that number wounded. He calls the scale of losses “quite significant”

CIA head talks about a meeting he had in Moscow with Putin in Nov 2021. He says he left the meeting “more troubled” than when he arrived as Putin “made no effort to deny the (Ukraine war) plans”. Burns said he didn’t believe Putin had yet made an “irreversible decision” to attack

BREAKING: CIA Director Bill Burns says China has been “unsettled” by Russia’s war in Ukraine - unsettled by Russia’s military performance, unsettled by the negative global economic impact & unsettled by how Putin has driven US & European allies closer together

CIA chief says the risk of China using force to take Taiwan “becomes higher the further into the decade you get”. Bill Burns says Beijing will be studying lessons from Russia’s war in Ukraine. Impact won’t be on whether China uses force too but on “how & when they’d then do it”