JRL NEWSWATCH: “U.S. intelligence weighs Putin’s two years of extreme pandemic isolation as a factor in his wartime mind-set” – New York Times

“… [There has been] an urgent re-examination by intelligence agencies … of … Putin’s mental state. … debat[ing] … whether his ambitions and appetite for risk have been altered by … Covid isolation, or by [his judgment of timing regarding the rebuilding of Russian influence and personal legacy, or some combination of the above]. … Putin has retreated into an intricate [social distancing] cocoon …. Putin’s extreme caution reflects not only his age[, a high-risk 69,] … but also what critics describe as paranoia honed during his former career as a K.G.B. spy.  …”

Russia’s Federal Protective Service is said to have concocted a virus-free bubble for Putin, reducing him mostly to video conferences for much of the pandemic, with Putin appearing from an austere room at Novo-Ogaryovo, a Moscow estate.  Both that estate and the Kremlin have disinfectant tunnels. More recent in-person meetings have required visitors to quarantine for two weeks beforehand or, as in the case of some foreign dignitaries, to either submit to special tests that also would reveal DNA, or sit 20 feet away from Putin at enormous tables.

Click here for: “U.S. intelligence weighs Putin’s two years of extreme pandemic isolation as a factor in his wartime mind-set.” – New York Times/ David E. Sanger, Anton Troianovski