Biden administration says coup attempt by Wagner warlord shows ‘real cracks’ in Putin’s grip on power in Russia: Top diplomat Anthony Blinken calls Yevgeny Prigozhin’s uprising ‘a direct challenge’ to Russian tyrant’s authority
- That is what the secretary of state said in an interview with CBS talk show ‘Face the Nation’
- His comments come after Prigozhin abandoned his march on Moscow following a last-minute deal allegedly brokered by Belarus.
- The oligarch turned mercenary is reportedly on his way to Minsk
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s coup attempt shows “real cracks” in Vladimir Putin’s power group in Russia, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Sunday (June 26).
America’s top diplomat told the CBS News talk show “Face the Nation” that the Russian tyrant’s reputation had been seriously undermined by last weekend’s impeachment bid.
Blinken called the short-lived uprising “a direct challenge to Putin’s authority.” So this raises profound questions, it shows real cracks.’
Blinken made his comments in an interview with CBS News’ popular Sunday morning talk show Face the Nation
Prigozhin, boss of the dreaded Wagner group of mercenaries, was expelled from Rostov-on-Don after calling off his short-lived Saturday night uprising
Prigozhin, who became known as “Putin’s chef” after winning lucrative catering contracts with the Kremlin, called off his plans to march on Moscow on Saturday evening.
The move came after he reportedly held talks with Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko over fears of a possible civil war.
Putin had vowed to “brutally” punish those behind the uprising, accusing them of treason.
Prigozhin’s Wagner Group is a shady mercenary group accused of war crimes in Ukraine, Africa and the Middle East.
The former Putin ally, who was one of the strongest critics of the Russian Ministry of Defense’s handling of the war, will now move to neighboring Belarus.
In return, Russian officials have agreed to drop all charges against the 62-year-old oligarch and his troops. will fall,
It remains unclear whether the self-proclaimed “private military company” will continue to play a major role in Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
The recruits, many of whom are from maximum security prisons across Russia, have been deployed to the front lines, including in the battle for the eastern Donbas city of Bakhmut.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s chief propagandist, has said Wagner fighters can now sign a contract directly with Moscow if they want to.
The row between Moscow and Prigozhin broke out Saturday morning when his men claimed they had captured a southern military headquarters in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, close to Ukraine’s occupied Crimea peninsula.
They also claimed to have taken over another regional command in Voronezh, another city on the route north to Moscow.
Known for their particularly vicious tactics, Wagner fighters have been filmed committing a series of gruesome atrocities
Gruesome videos, often shared on the Telegram messaging service, show their men beheading and castrating Ukrainian soldiers.
Another footage shows the execution of a reported deserter and suspected collaborator, as Kiev is bludgeoned to death with a sledgehammer.