Top U.S. officials on June 25 reacted to news out of Russia that the Wagner Group private military company had mounted a mutiny against the Russian state before withdrawing, saying it shows that Russian President Vladimir Putin is weaker within his own nation than many thought.
The conflict between Putin and Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin—formerly known as “Putin’s chef” because of the close personal relationship the two enjoyed—kicked off on June 23 after a long-running feud between Prigozhin and Russia’s Defense Ministry appeared to reach a boiling point.
Prigozhin had claimed that Russian military forces intentionally killed a “huge” number of Wagner group contractors as part of his justification for the assault.
However, the incursion seemed to end almost as soon as it began, spanning a roughly 24-hour period in which Wagner saw huge gains into the Russian heartland before inexplicably cutting a deal with Russia and withdrawing. Prigozhin was granted amnesty from criminal action for treason as part of his deal to not continue his march on Moscow and has retired to Belarus, a Russian satellite state.
Information about the sequence of events is limited in Russia, where press freedom is restricted, and many conflicting accounts of events have emerged.
Top U.S. officials are contending with the dizzying speed of the advance, compromise, and withdrawal.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the rounds of morning shows on June 25, fielding questions about U.S. intelligence about the saga.
Blinken called reports out of Russia “extraordinary,” while former CIA Director David Petraeus called them “stunning.”
Blinken told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” that U.S. intelligence is unsure why Wagner suddenly retreated after coming, according to reports, within 125 miles of Moscow, which had begun to set up heavy fortifications in preparation for the Wagner onslaught.
“We don’t have full information, honestly, and it’s too soon to tell exactly where this is going to go,” Blinken said when asked about the retreat. “And I suspect that this is a moving picture, and we haven’t seen the last act yet.”
Petraeus suggested that Progozhin “lost his nerve.”
‘Beginning of the End for Putin’
As the dust begins to settle from what could have spiraled into a full-scale crisis for Putin, many observers are predicting that it could be the “beginning of the end” for the embattled Russian president.However, Blinken was hesitant to apply such an analysis.
“Do you believe that this is the beginning of the end for Vladimir Putin?” Bash asked.
Blinken responded, “I don’t want to speculate about that. This is, first of all, an internal matter for Russia.”
However, he argued that Russian military action in Ukraine has become a strategic failure across the board. He said Russia is weaker economically and militarily, and its standing around the world has plummeted. The invasion managed to get Europeans off Russian energy, has united and strengthened NATO with new members and a stronger alliance, and managed to alienate Ukraine from Russia.
“This is just an added chapter to a very, very bad book that Putin has written for Russia,” Blinken said.
He noted that it’s “striking” that these events transpired from within the nation rather than without, as until now, the Russian homeland has faced few military repercussions for its action in Ukraine.
“It adds cracks—where those go when they get there too soon to say—but it clearly raises new questions that Putin has to deal with,” Blinken said.
Former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who recently announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, agrees.
“This moment shows the cracks within Russia and Putin losing his grip on that country,”
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that for the invasion to have gotten as far as it did, there must have been “accomplices” within the Russian military.
“For any government to have stability, they have to control their military,” Turner said. “Obviously, in order [for Progozhin] to make it that distance, he has to have accomplices.
“Where was the Russian Air Force in preventing this?
“That’s going to be an issue that Putin is going to have to deal with both internationally and domestically. His government, as an authoritarian government, depends on its assertion of power and force in order to be able to continue to wield power. And that certainly is going to be an issue.”
Petraeus said the sequence of events shows that “clearly Putin is weakened, his government is weakened.”
“Who knows where this could go,” he said. “Now, we’ve always asked who would be the one who would strike a blow at the Tsar, and now we know, although he failed.”
Nevertheless, Petraeus suggested that “it creates a lot of doubts, I’m sure, in the minds of those around him,” particularly as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to fall below optimistic initial expectations.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said, “It showed a demonstrable crack in the strength of Vladimir Putin at home. It was a visible rejection of his war policy by a guy who had been his ally, who clearly had gone insubordinate on him.”
How Should the US Respond?
Officials also offered possible U.S. responses to the instability caused by the situation as it continues to support Ukraine against the Russian invasion. Most recommended continued support of Ukraine.“The Ukrainian foreign minister ... says it’s time for the U.S. and others to put their foot on the gas and give Ukraine everything it needs to finish this. Is that going to happen?” Bash asked Blinken.
Blinken responded, “We have worked to make sure that the Ukrainians have what they need when they need it to do as well as they possibly can on the ground. We'll continue to do that. We’re relentlessly focused on this.
“There’s tremendous unity of purpose and unity of action among dozens of countries that, through the President’s leadership, we brought together and kept together and will continue to do that.”
Petraeus said it shows the need for further U.S. assistance to Ukraine.
“What we need to do is to continue to provide everything possible to Ukraine, to enable them in this summer offensive, which is still in the early days ... to succeed and over time to convince Putin that he’s not going to be able to out-suffer the Ukrainians, the Europeans, and the Americans the way Russians out-suffered Napoleon’s army and the Nazis.”
Bash also raised the question of how the United States should respond.
“Is there something that the [United States] should be doing right now, given the chaos in Russia, to help Ukraine seize this moment?” she asked.
Klobuchar replied, “The key is that we didn’t falter, Democrats and Republicans ... [to] work together to get that agreement to show the world that we stood with Ukraine. That was significant, and then the ongoing discussions on additional weaponry and ... the discussion about the planes in the last month.”
Burgum told Bash, “We have an opportunity along with our NATO partners in this situation to really get behind and support Ukraine. Let’s give them the support they need. Let’s get this let’s get this war over now, instead of having a protracted [conflict].”
Former New Jersey Governor and 2024 GOP presidential contender Chris Christie attributed the uprising in part to the U.S. and NATO’s support of Ukraine and indicated that would remain important in the future.
“America’s support, along with our allies in NATO, of Ukraine has done a great deal to cause what we’re seeing right now,” Christie told ABC’s “This Week.”
“In Russia, Putin’s misadventure and all the missteps that happened by the Biden administration, the Trump administration, and the Obama administration on this issue have led to this moment, and I think we have to watch this very carefully.
“But we have to continue to support Ukraine. We have to give them the weapons they need to fight their battle against the Russians and to repel them. And I think that what this may do ... is move us closer to a resolution of this battle, because of Putin’s weakness. That’s obvious now inside his own country, I think, in large part because of the way he has prosecuted this war.”
He replied to some GOP criticisms of continued support of Ukraine that "America has never been a great country and the leader of the world by filling in the moat and pulling up the drawbridge.
“This is a fight that America needs to have. It always involves sacrifice, but in the end at the end of the sacrifice, ... America will be bigger, stronger, richer, and more influential in the world because we stood by our principles and stood by our friends.”
