If you've followed the diplomacy over Ukraine closely, you may have noticed that the Biden administration has relied heavily on CIA Director William J. Burns.
"Two years ago, Burns wrote a memoir entitled, The Back Channel. It directly contradicts the argument being proffered by the administration he now serves. In his book, Burns says over and over that Russians of all ideological stripes-not just Putin-loathed and feared NATO expansion. He quotes a memo he wrote while serving as counselor for political affairs at the US embassy in Moscow in 1995. 'Hostility to early NATO expansion," it declares, "Is almost universally felt across the domestic political spectrum here." On the question of extending NATO membership to Ukraine, Burns' warnings about the breadth of Russian opposition are even more emphatic.
"In more than two and a half years of conversations with key Russian players, from knuckle-draggers in the dark recesses of the Kremlin to Putin's sharpest liberal critics, I have yet to find anyone who views Ukraine in NATO as anything other than a direct challenge to Russian interests."
While the Biden administration claims that Putin bears all the blame for the current Ukraine crisis, Burns makes clear that the US helped lay its foundations.
As the Bush administration moved toward opening NATO's doors to Ukraine, Burns' warnings about a Russian backlash grew even starker.
Steven Pifer, who from 1998 to 2000 served as US ambassador to Ukraine, has called Bush's 2008 decision to declare that Ukraine would eventually join NATO "a real mistake." Fiona Hill, who gained fame during the Trump impeachment saga, says that as national intelligence officers for Russia and Eurasia she and her colleagues "Warned" Bush that "Putin would view steps to bring Ukraine and Georgia closer to NATO as a provocative move that would likely provoke pre-emptive Russian military action."
Burns' criticisms of past US policy toward Russia and Ukraine don't mean he opposes Biden's policy today.
https://peterbeinart.substack.com/p/bidens-cia-director-doesnt-believe?utm_source=url
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