Politico reports:

Half of Washington, D.C., is in the business of analyzing Vladimir Putin’s every word and move these days. But when CIA Director William Burns speaks of the Russian leader, an autocrat waging a brutal war on Ukraine, his words carry unusual weight.

Putin is the epitome of a “peculiarly Russian combination of qualities”: “cocky, cranky, aggrieved and insecure,” Burns has written. The Kremlin chief is “an apostle of payback,” Burns has declared.

Instead of giving up on his invasion of Ukraine, Putin is likely to double down, Burns recently predicted. “I think he’s in a frame of mind in which he doesn’t believe he can afford to lose,” Burns said.

Granted, by sheer virtue of leading America’s premier spy agency, every word Burns publicly utters about Putin will get attention. But the 66-year-old also happens to have been a longtime career diplomat whose resume includes two tours in Russia, including serving as the U.S. ambassador there from 2005-2008. Burns has watched Putin for many years, and few, if any, people in the U.S. government have had more personal experience with the Russian leader.

All of this has made Burns a singular figure among President Joe Biden’s top aides, and one entrusted with some of the most sensitive tasks. It was Burns whom Biden quietly sent to Moscow last fall to warn Putin against attacking Ukraine, and it is often Burns to whom Washington’s elite turn when trying to divine what Putin will do next. [Continue reading…]