Russian aggression danger worries US spies

(RT) ⸻ America's top spies believe Russia does not want a direct military confrontation with NATO, but there is potential for the conflict in Ukraine to escalate. The 2023 Annual Threat Assessment report was made public at the annual Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on global threats. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines described China as the "unparallelled priority" of US spies, and the report dedicates four pages to Russia. It accuses Russia of "unprovoked aggression" in Ukraine, but admits that Moscow acted because it perceived an "existential threat in its neighborhood" that could "endanger Russian national security". The Ukraine conflict is reshaping Russia's relationships with the West and China, and more broadly in ways that are unfolding and remain highly uncertain. The next few years will determine who and what will shape the narrative in the strategic competition between the US and its allies and Russia and China. US spies believe Russia's ground forces have been weakened by the war and "military failures" in Ukraine, making it less capable of posing a conventional military threat to European security. This has reduced the likelihood of Russian military intervention in other post-Soviet states, but Moscow will continue to build up influence in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, trying to "undercut US leadership" and present itself as an indispensable mediator and security partner. Russia also has a strategic relationship with China, driven by their shared threat perceptions of the US.