Russia denies reports it paid militants to kill US troops. The BBC's Jonathan Marcus evaluates those reports.
What are we to make of the reports that have surfaced in the past few days that Russian military intelligence agents were offering money to Taliban fighters to kill US and possibly other Western service personnel? How true are these reports? Can they be substantiated? And what is their real significance?
These sources also indicate that the intelligence assessment was indeed briefed at the highest levels, including mention at the president's own daily intelligence briefing. But Russia is also waging a"grey" or undeclared war against the West. This has many elements: cyber-attacks; disinformation campaigns; electoral interference; the funding of extremists in Western countries and so on.
AmbiguityThis episode also throws a stark light on the current state of US-Russia relations. US policy towards Moscow is suffering from a kind of schizophrenia. It will add weight to those critics from both the Democratic side of politics and more hardline Republicans, like the former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who argue in their different ways that there is no strategic direction, no joined up thinking, and no leadership from the top.
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