Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum yesterday, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly echoed statements made by Sir Richard Moore, head of the Secret Intelligence Service-MI6, who told an audience in Prague the same day that “cracks” are appearing in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government structure and that he is a target for potential destabilization (see separate slug). The two men obviously coordinated their remarks.
Referencing Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Pregozhin’s attempted mutiny in June, Cleverly proclaimed that “an attempted coup is never a good look because there’s no way that Putin can spin this as business as usual or good news. What we’re seeing is that the first, very visible cracks that are appearing on either side were not in Ukraine, were not in NATO, were not in the EU, were not in the U.K.-U.S. relationship or any of that. The first cracks that we saw were in the Russian system.” In statements made on the sidelines of the Forum, reported by the Daily Mail, Cleverly insisted that it is really in the U.S.’s “best interests” to keep backing Ukraine in its war with Russia, as the U.S. was always “at its strongest when it was engaged in the rest of the world.” Didn’t he mean, keep the money and weapons flowing from Washington?
According to Politico, Moore’s and Cleverly’s remarks were an attempt to project “optimism” into the Ukraine situation, given that the much vaunted counteroffensive is moving very slowly. At Aspen, both in public speeches and on the sidelines, concerns about the counteroffensive have been raised repeatedly, Politico notes, “leading to questions about whether the U.S., the U.K. and their allies have backed a side that can’t win any time soon.”
Not to worry, said Cleverly. Ukraine is clearly winning the war, because they are taking territory it took Russians months to seize, the exact same point that Sir Richard made in Prague, almost word for word.. “The Ukrainians are making progress steadily,” Cleverly went on. Why? Well, “this is the `slowly phase’ because they’re going through heavily fortified, mined real estate and there is no quick and safe way of doing that and they choose to do it safely rather than quickly. I think it’s the right judgment call. And it doesn’t alter the fact that we’ve got to stick with them until this is done.”
