U.K. Foreign Secretary Cleverly Pushes the ‘Putin Is Collapsing’ Line

July 20, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum yesterday, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly echoed statements in Prague by MI6 Chief Sir Richard Moore, who told an audience also on July 19 that “cracks” are appearing in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government structure and that he is a target for potential destabilization. The two men obviously coordinated their remarks.

Referencing Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s June mutiny, Cleverly proclaimed that “an attempted coup is never a good look because there’s no way that Putin can spin this as business as usual or good news. What we’re seeing is that the first, very visible cracks that are appearing on either side were not in Ukraine, were not in NATO, were not in the EU, were not in the U.K.-U.S. relationship or any of that. The first cracks that we saw were in the Russian system.” On the sidelines of the Forum, the Daily Mail reported, Cleverly insisted that it is in Washington’s “best interests” to keep backing Ukraine against Russia, as the U.S. is always “at its strongest when it was engaged in the rest of the world.”

According to Politico, Moore and Cleverly’s remarks were efforts to project “optimism” into the Ukraine situation, given that the much-vaunted counteroffensive is moving very slowly. At Aspen, both publicly and privately, speakers have repeatedly raised concerns about the counteroffensive, “leading to questions about whether the U.S., the U.K. and their allies have backed a side that can’t win any time soon.”

Not to worry, said Cleverly. Ukraine is clearly winning the war, because they are taking territory it took Russians months to seize, exactly the point that Moore made in Prague, almost word for word. “The Ukrainians are making progress steadily,” Cleverly went on. Why? Well, “this is the ‘slowly phase’ because they’re going through heavily fortified, mined real estate and there is no quick and safe way of doing that and they choose to do it safely rather than quickly. I think it’s the right judgment call. And it doesn’t alter the fact that we’ve got to stick with them until this is done.”