[Darn intrusiveness! Chekov considers giving a vague reply, but he likes Kitty. Being real with her should be safe enough.]
The Starfleet that I know is not the same as the one that Counselor Troi and Lieutenant Commander Data may have told you about. We are from different timelines. From what I have learned about the other timeline, my Starfleet is more... militaristic, I would like to say. Less exploratory, less peaceful. More likely to keep secrets and entertain policies that go against the spirit of the Federation of Planets. The specifics are unimportant.
[Okay, so that was still vague. It's hard to admit that some of the Starfleet bigwigs were behaving so despicably that even a genocidal tyrant from the past didn't approve of their doings.]