INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
United States intelligence chiefs on Tuesday branded Russia's Vladimir Putin an "angry," isolated leader craving global clout, frustrated
about how his Ukraine invasion has not gone to plan and lobbing provocative nuclear threats at the West.The long-standing president in
Moscow has been "stewing in a combustible combination of grievance and ambition for many years," CIA Director William Burns told United
and the United States."I think Putin is angry and frustrated right now
He's likely to double down and try to grind down the Ukrainian military with no regard for civilian casualties," Burns said at a
congressional hearing on global threats.The Russian strongman has encountered a tidal wave of opprobrium for the deadly invasion, leaving
him isolated like never before.The United States intelligence community warned of the potential for Putin to lash out, especially noting an
elevated nuclear threat.Lieutenant General Scott Berrier, director of the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency, said Russia under Putin
"I believe that he thinks that gives him an asymmetric advantage."Putin took the shock step last month of putting Russia's nuclear forces
on high alert.Some United States officials have privately expressed concern that, in a worst-case scenario, he might order deployment of
such mini-nukes on a city.'Obsessed' and paranoidDirector of National Intelligence Avril Haines said "Putin's nuclear saber-rattling" has
put the West on notice."We assess Putin feels aggrieved the West does not give him proper deference, and perceives this as a war he cannot
afford to lose," Haines told the panel."But what he might be willing to accept as a victory may change over time," she said.The invasion has
produced "a shock to the geopolitical order with implications for the future that we are only beginning to understand, but are sure to be
consequential."With Putin under immense pressure, his circle of close advisors is getting "narrower and narrower," the CIA's Burns said.In
such a system, "it's not proven career enhancing for people to question or challenge his judgment."A top United States diplomat also
weighed in before Congress to label Russia's president an "obsessed," paranoid leader who has created a "bed of lies" and tested the very
foundations of international law."Over the years, President Putin's imperial ambition has grown and he is dissatisfied with the last 30
years of Russian history," Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland told Congress in a separate hearing.He has longed
"to be the guy that helps recreate the Soviet Union," she said of Putin, a KGB officer at the time of the United States S.R.'s
disintegration, which he saw as a personal defeat.With his intentions laid bare by the war, and his recent comments suggesting Ukraine is
not a legitimate nation independent from Russia, "I think his interior mind is now out there for everybody to see," Nuland added.
