(NBC News) — U.S. intelligence agencies have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin is growing increasingly frustrated by his military struggles in Ukraine and may see his only option as doubling down on violence, current and former U.S. officials briefed on the matter told NBC News.
As the Russian economy teeters under unprecedented global sanctions and his purportedly superior military force appears bogged down, Putin has lashed out in anger at underlings, even as he remains largely isolated from the Kremlin in part because of concerns about Covid, the sources said.
“This is somebody that’s clearly been caught off guard by the size of the Ukrainian resistance,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, said on MSNBC. “He has isolated himself. He’s not been in the Kremlin very much. … You’ve got less and less inputs, and these inputs are from sycophants.”
He added: “I do worry that he’s been backed into a corner. I do worry that there is no obvious exit ramp.”