CIA director Burns on Putin: Suspicion and power plays

Burns served as the CIA director for four years under President Joe Biden. He previously developed his career in the State Department, and from 2005 to 2008, he was the ambassador to Russia. In the fall of 2021, he personally traveled to Moscow to dissuade Putin from invading Ukraine. He was also one of the initiators of an unprecedented campaign to disclose information about the Kremlin's preparations for war.

Burns will leave his position after the change of administration in the White House. In an interview with NPR, he mentioned that he has "long experience dealing with and interacting with Putin."

He's a big believer in control and intimidation. He's deeply suspicious of people around him and always looking for vulnerabilities that he can take advantage of, he said.

According to Burns, the new administration, in preparing for negotiations regarding Ukraine, must ensure it has sufficient leverage both for itself and for President Volodymyr Zelensky, so that talks do not occur solely on Putin's terms.

But the issue, I think, is going to be how do you help President Zelenskyy and Ukraine sustain enough leverage to ensure that those negotiations are not just on Putin's terms. And how do you continue to inflict costs on Russia so that Putin understands that time is not necessarily on his side, which is what I think he believes today, he says.

Burns advised President Barack Obama before his only meeting with Putin during a visit to Moscow in 2009. At the time, Putin was serving as prime minister but effectively wielded real power in Russia as the patron of then-President Dmitry Medvedev – Obama writes in his book "A Promised Land," published in 2020.

Putin is very sensitive to what he might perceive as arrogance. In his view, he is the most important, Burns told Obama before the visit to Putin's residence. It might be worth starting the meeting by asking him for his opinion on U.S.-Russia relations and letting him talk, he added.

Obama wrote that Burns had not been exaggerating when he said that Putin could talk. He explained that he had not even finished asking his question before Putin launched into an enthusiastic and apparently unending monologue. In it, Putin listed numerous instances of what he considered to be injustice, betrayal, and arrogant treatment that, in his view, both he and the Russian nation had suffered at the hands of Americans. According to Obama’s account, Putin portrayed Americans as arrogant, disdainful, unwilling to treat Russia as an equal partner, and persistently trying to impose their conditions on the rest of the world.

Obama recounted that Putin spoke continuously for around 45 minutes, despite the protocol stipulating that the meeting should last only an hour. He noted that he did not interrupt Putin, observing that while it was evident the Russian leader had rehearsed his remarks beforehand, his sense of grievance appeared to be genuine.

Obama noticed the nonchalance of his movements and the feigned indifference in his voice, which indicated a man used to being surrounded by subordinates and sycophants – a man accustomed to power. At an informal meeting with representatives of Russian society, which took place the same day, Obama was asked about his impressions of Putin:

He responded that Putin seemed surprisingly familiar, comparing him to a district boss but one equipped with nuclear weapons and a veto power at the UN Security Council.

In 2023, clinical psychologist Dr. Nirit Pizano from Cognovi Labs presented an analysis of Putin's speeches before and after the invasion of Ukraine at a Pentagon-related conference. Anger, disgust, and disdain were identified as dominating emotions in Putin, with a total absence of fear. Based on this, she attempted to explain why a deterrence strategy does not work with Putin.