US Central Intelligence Agency director William Burns said on Saturday that Russian president Vladimir Putin believes doubling down on the military conflict in Ukraine will improve his outcome in the war.
"He's in a frame of mind in which he doesn't believe he can afford to lose," said Mr Burns, who was speaking at a Financial Times event in Washington. "I think he's convinced right now that doubling down still will enable him to make progress."
Mr Burns also said the Chinese government had been struck by Ukraine's fierce resistance to Russia's invasion and by the economic costs Russia is bearing.
"I think the Chinese leadership is looking very carefully at all this – at the costs and consequences of any effort to use force to gain control over Taiwan," Mr Burns said.
He cautioned, however, that it would not shift Chinese leader Xi Jinping's long-term goals over Taiwan.
"I don't for a minute think that this has eroded Xi's determination over time to gain control over Taiwan," said Mr Burns. "But I think it's something that's affecting their calculation about how and when they go about doing that."
China has refused to condemn Russia's war in Ukraine and has criticised Western sanctions on Moscow.
Beijing and Moscow declared a "no-limits" strategic partnership several weeks before the February 24th invasion, and have been forging closer energy and security ties in recent years to push back on the United States and the West.
But Mr Burns said the United States believed China was unsettled by the reputational damage of being associated with the "brutishness" of Putin's military action.
"I think what the bitter experience, in many ways, of Putin's Russia in Ukraine over the last 10 or 11 weeks has done is demonstrate that that friendship actually does have some limits."
