Cut from the book. After catching Woodward faking that Lavrov quote, I had to cut all the citations from that book out of mine. But I’ll leave this here at least because it’s funny:

Insider journalist Bob Woodward wrote in 2024 that the administration recognized Russia’s antipathy toward NATO expansion, and particularly the threat of Ukraine’s addition to the alliance. He paraphrased Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines saying that Putin was “insecure” about “Ukraine distancing itself from Russia while deepening its engagement with the West and NATO. The Ukrainian military was getting stronger and better with assistance from the West. The longer Putin waited to invade, the more formidable the Ukrainian pushback would be.” But then he said they were also all so certain that whatever Putin’s motives were, it could not possibly have been anything they said or did. Instead, Haines, who just indicated otherwise, concluded he just wanted to “restore Russia to its former glory.” She invoked the “greatest catastrophe of the 20th century” trope, and added, Woodward paraphrased, “The intelligence community believed racial animus — namely the idea that Ukrainians were a lesser people than the Russians — was a significant factor in Putin’s designs on Ukraine.” Haines said of Putin, “He is one of the most racist leaders that we have.” Finally, the mystery solved. That must be it — deep anti-Ruthenian bigotry. It had to be something that does not have anything to do with us.

Woodward, War, 66–67.