The United States knew of the plans of Wagner’s mercenaries and chose to remain silent. According to officials close to the matter, members of US intelligence kept senior military officials and the Joe Biden government up to date on what was about to happen in Russia under the orders of Evgeny Prigozhin.
The information from the spies of the leading world power shows that they were aware of the situation in Russia in the same way that they warned of the possible invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin’s troops in February 2022. In this case, however , they kept the information secret to avoid being accused by Moscow of being involved in an attempted coup.
That could be one version. The other is that Washington had no intention of stopping this possible political decapitation of their greatest enemy in Europe, which would have favored, in principle, their interests in the region. Reports about Wagner’s plans began circulating on Wednesday of last week among senior government officials and the Pentagon, and on Thursday several congressmen were informed of what was about to explode.
The United States was aware of the clashes between Prigozhin and Sergei Shoigu, the Defense Minister, and the head of the Russian Armed Forces, General Valery Gerasimov, a powder keg that they estimated could explode sooner or later. Over time, this was seen by Washington as a sure sign of internal tensions stemming from the war in Ukraine, exacerbated by continued shortages of Russian troops on the front lines. Prigozhin asked for ammunition and in Moscow they were not able to supply him. Wagner’s leader ended up making public his discontent with Putin’s military high command and in Washington they understood that it was not a pantomime. He accused them of being incompetent and corrupt.
Despite the evident tension, in Washington they were not aware that Prigozhin was going to take action until a few days ago, a scenario that aroused concern between Biden and his followers about what it could mean for the handling of Russian nuclear weapons in the future. In October, the president himself spoke of finding “ways out” for Putin in case he was cornered and the nuclear threat grew.
The danger, in any case, remains latent. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that what happened to Wagner’s fighters has exposed new “cracks” in the strength of the Russian leadership that may take weeks or months to manifest. Blinken does not rule out that the current scenario with Wagner has weakened Putin in ways that could help Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces inside its territory while benefiting Russia’s neighbors, including Poland and the Baltic states.
“I don’t think we’ve seen the final act,” he told ABC’s This Week after the abortive mutiny by Prigozhin-led forces. “We have seen more cracks appear in the Russian facade. It is too early to say exactly where they are going and when they get there. But certainly, we have all kinds of new questions that Putin will have to answer,” he said.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project