Russian President Vladimir Putin's "special military operation" in Ukraine has "made NATO great again," according to former CIA Director David Petraeus.
Prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Putin demanded that Kyiv commit to never joining NATO, while cautioning against the expansion of the alliance. The Russian president has so far spectacularly failed in achieving his anti-NATO goals.
Russia's neighbor Finland joined NATO this year and Sweden appears poised to follow suit soon. Ukraine is also closer than ever to joining the alliance, having secured a guarantee for future membership at this week's NATO summit in Lithuania.
Petraeus, who briefly served as CIA director in the administration of former President Barack Obama following a long career in the Army, suggested that Putin was "in denial" about the state of affairs during an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on Thursday.
Tapper asked Petraeus to put on his "CIA director cap" to weigh in on what might have "went through Putin's mind" after hearing that President Joe Biden said Putin had "already lost" the war in Ukraine during a joint press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö earlier in the day.
"Putin, of course, is still in denial," Petraeus said. "He doesn't look in the mirror yet and see a leader who made a catastrophically bad decision for his country—that he set out to make Russia great again, and really has made NATO great again."
"And, of course, now we're going to see another member of NATO join—adding Sweden to Finland, already having joined as a result of this Russian invasion," he continued.
Petraeus went on to say that the thought of Russia being unable to "out-suffer" Ukraine and its allies "has to be creeping into" Putin's mind, noting the "enormous" Russian casualties in Ukraine, organization-level issues in the military and the strain on the economy in Russia.
"These are not heartening signs if you are overseeing this operation from the Kremlin," said Petraeus.
Newsweek reached out for comment to the Embassy of Russia in Washington, D.C., via email on Thursday.
The office of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov responded to developments at the NATO summit shortly after it ended on Wednesday, saying in a statement that the alliance's "provocative policy of expansion" would be responded to "in a timely and appropriate manner using all means and methods at our disposal."
Putin said that Ukraine becoming a NATO member state "won't increase Ukraine's security and it will make the world much more vulnerable in general and lead to additional tension on the international arena" in comments to Russian state television on Thursday, according to The Financial Times.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S.-based think tank, said in a report published on Wednesday night that Russia's "muted" response to the pro-Ukraine developments at the NATO summit could indicate that "the Kremlin has internalized" setbacks suffered in the war.
"Pushing NATO back from Russia's borders was one of the Kremlin's stated demands before the invasion," ISW said. "The lack of general outcry within the Russian information space ... likely indicates that the Kremlin has internalized these defeats and desires to avoid dwelling on them."
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Aila Slisco is a Newsweek night reporter based in New York. Her focus is on reporting national politics, where she ... Read more
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