US saw that Putin wanted to restore USSR, but did not try to stop him, - former CIA Director Panetta
Since the beginning of its administration, the United States has perceived Vladimir Putin as an enemy who wants to weaken the United States.
According to Censor.NET, former CIA Director and former US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said this in an interview with LIGA.net.
He noted that when it came to Central and Eastern Europe, America had been most concerned about Putin's power vertical in the early 2000s, and that he had come to the Kremlin to restore the USSR. The United States saw the Russian dictator doing everything in that direction, Panetta said.
However, according to him, because the CIA did not trust Putin's words, the United States also did not believe him in 2008, when he openly said that he would attack Ukraine if it tried to join NATO.
"We didn't believe everything Putin said. In particular, what he said about the former Soviet republics that gained independence. But it was a mistake. We have always perceived the former Soviet republics as sovereign, building their own states after the collapse of the USSR. This statehood, according to U.S. leaders, cannot be abolished either then or in the future," the former CIA chief said.
As a reminder, Britain and the United States believe that the world is under the most serious threat since the Cold War. The reason for this is the Russian Federation.
