CIA Director, China is considering sending arms to Moscow but has not decided

(ANSA) - ROME, FEBRUARY 26 - In an exclusive interview with CbsNews, CIA director Bill Burns confirmed the possibility that China could send lethal aid to Russia in its war against Ukraine even if Beijing has not yet made a decision.

    "We do not see that a definitive decision has yet been made and we do not see evidence of actual shipments of lethal equipment," Burns said, confirming that the US administration's goal - sharing that of CIA intelligence - is to dissuade China from making the decision to transfer aid to Moscow.

And he indicated that if this were decided, for President Xi "it would be a very risky and imprudent gamble".

    Burns went on to note that the Russian invasion and subsequent global response was of particular interest to Xi: "There is no foreign leader who has looked more closely at Vladimir Putin's experience in Ukraine, the evolution of the war, than Xi Jinping did,” he said.

"I think, in many ways, he was disturbed by what he saw," he added.

    Three months ago, Biden sent Burns to meet with Russian intelligence director Sergey Naryshkin to issue a warning not to use nuclear weapons: Burns described the meeting as "pretty daunting."

"There was also a very provocative attitude from Naryshkin. A sense of arrogance that I think reflects Putin's point of view, his own belief today, that he can make time work for him, that he believes he can grind Ukrainians, that he can wear our European allies, that political weariness will eventually prevail,” Burns said.

(HANDLE).