Intelligence analysts inside the Trump administration were reportedly divided over whether Vladimir Putin was sincerely interested in negotiating an end to the Ukraine war.
Ahead of a controversial August summit in Alaska between Trump and Putin, the State Department’s internal intelligence agency took a more dim view of the question than other sectors of the administration, warning the president of Putin’s reluctance to end the conflict in assessments and presidential briefings, The Wall Street Journal reports.
“We kept standing firm,” John Williams, who resigned earlier this year from his post as director of the State Department’s Russia-Eurasia analysis in the intelligence bureau, told the paper. “We didn’t see that [Putin] had incentive to negotiate an end to the war.”
“In the Intelligence Community, differing perspectives aren’t just normal—they’re necessary,” the office of the administration’s Director of National Intelligence said in a statement in response to the reporting. “That debate is how we ensure our decision-makers have the most accurate picture possible to protect the safety and freedom of the American people.”
In the end, the August summit yielded no firm agreement, and progress on ending the war hasn’t moved much, drawing increasing irritation from Trump as he continues to publicly frame himself as a Nobel Prize-worthy peacemaker president.
This month, hopes inside the White House briefly appeared high that some progress would be made, with the president describing a “productive” call with Putin and claiming he would sit down again with the Russian leader for talks in Budapest in November.
The Trump administration has since called off those plans, claiming it does not want to have another “wasted meeting” with Putin.
Trump then hit Russia with its toughest round of sanctions yet, targeting two top oil producers.
Announcing the move, the president said he “just felt it was time” for action to push Russia towards a resolution.
As the president headed to Asia to kick off this weekend’s diplomatic tour, he again turned the screws on Putin, claiming no further talks would take place until a deal seemed reachable.
"You have to know that we're going to make a deal, I'm not going to be wasting my time," the US president told reporters in Doha on Saturday.
