Intelligence allies predict Putin’s revenge at Aspen Forum

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By Steve Schuster

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The premier national security and foreign policy conference in the United States kicked off this week in Colorado at the Aspen Forum with a wide range of speakers ranging from Microsoft and Intel to CIA and MI6. Also in attendance were journalists and university professors. For a full list of this year’s speakers click here.

Presented by the Aspen Strategy Group, ASF has provided a nonpartisan public venue for domestic and global leaders to discuss the key national security and foreign policy issues of the day for the past 14 years.

“The Forum features the highest caliber of speakers, including domestic and international government officials, business executives, leading academics, and noted journalists. Open to a carefully selected cohort of journalists and media outlets, the Aspen Security Forum is known for its far-reaching press coverage domestically and around the world,” Forum officials said.

Convening annually each summer in Aspen, Colorado and each winter in Washington D.C., the Forum is attended by hundreds of high-level audience members, including U.S. and foreign government officials, military leaders, scholars, business executives, media, and young professionals, officials added.

Among this week’s speakers was CIA Director Bill Burns, who became Director of the Central Intelligence Agency in 2021. He is the first career diplomat to lead the Agency. Director Burns holds the highest rank in the Foreign Service –Career Ambassador- and is only the second serving career diplomat in history to become Deputy Secretary of State. Director Burns retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2014 before becoming president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Prior to his tenure as Deputy Secretary of State, he served as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 2008-2011, U.S. Ambassador to Russia from 2005-2008, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs from 2001-2005, and U. S. Ambassador to Jordan from 1998-2001, according to the forum.

Burns said at the Forum, “Russia’s elite are showing increasing anxiety about President Vladimir Putin’s judgment, especially following a brief mutiny that appeared to catch the Kremlin off guard last month. Russia’s elite are showing increasing anxiety about President Vladimir Putin’s judgment, especially following a brief mutiny that appeared to catch the Kremlin off guard last month,” Politico reported.

NBC News reported, “Last month’s mutiny in Russia damaged President Vladimir Putin’s carefully crafted image as a strong ruler, and he is likely to seek retribution against the man who led the rebellion,” CIA Director William Burns said Thursday.

Burns also said Putin is plotting his revenge against the mutiny in Russia, Business Insider reported.

MI6 Chief Sir Richard Moore recently said Putin “is clearly under pressure. You don’t have a group of mercenaries get up the motorway 125 km from Moscow unless you haven’t quite predicated that’s going to happen.”