US: Russian President Putin is being misinformed

His top advisers have been misinforming Russian President Vladimir Putin about the Russian military’s poor performance in Ukraine. He was not told how Western sanctions were crippling Russia’s economy because his advisers were “too scared to tell him the truth,” a U.S. official told CNN. Putin would have realized by now that he was lying.

The official says the assessment is based on findings from US intelligence. The United States has said no one was aware of the allegations, which led to a rift between Putin and his top security officials.

“We have information that Putin was misled by the Russian military,” a US government official said. The ongoing tensions between Putin and the Defense Ministry are due to distrust of the leadership. For example, Putin may not have known that his army had stopped invading Ukraine and lost there. “This shows a clear impediment to sending careful information to the Russian president.”