An ex-CIA analyst has alleged that Vladimir Putin “orchestrated” the coup with Wagner chief mercenary Yevgeny Prigozhi in a “classic false flag” to try to make the West believe that its army was weakened.
Rebekah Koffler told Fox News’ Eric Shawn on Saturday that the coup was staged as a way for the Russian leader to increase his political power and that he will eventually “gain momentum, mobilize additional personnel and revive his offensive against Ukraine.” blow in’.
Prigozhin’s troops moved into Russia from their camps in Ukraine on Friday, taking over regional military command in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don before advancing on Moscow.
Just as suddenly, the advance was called off on Saturday and Russian state media said Wagner forces would return to Ukraine, while Prigozhin would flee to neighboring Belarus.
“So again, what has changed in this over the past few hours? Suddenly he decided to turn his troops around and make this deal? No, this is all staged,” Koffler said, adding that Putin wants us to believe he is weak.
Ex-CIA analyst Rebekah Koffler claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin “orchestrated” the coup with Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin as a “classic false flag”
Koffler said Saturday the coup was staged as a way for Putin to increase his political power and that he will eventually “gain momentum, mobilize additional personnel and revive his offensive against Ukraine.”
Yevgeny Prigozhin (pictured Saturday) will go to Belarus and face no charges after he called off his troops’ advance on Moscow, the Russian government said, easing the country’s most serious security crisis in decades.
“Putin wants us to believe that he is weak, that there is a constant threat of military insurrection,” Koffler claimed.
While Koffler’s credentials are bona fide, it’s unclear why Putin would let it get this far.
She continued: “So this is a pretext to declare martial law, which Putin has already done. He introduced an amendment today that anyone who violates martial law will be locked up for 30 days. Another very interesting and revealing point is that Putin has just given permission for men with a criminal record to join the army.”
“So this justifies additional mobilization of the Russian armed forces to send them to the meat grinder in Ukraine. It is also to show President Biden that Russia is not a threat. Russia is actually, you know, involved in its own internal turmoil. But this is all classic distraction and classic Putin,” she said.
“Prigozhin is not a stupid man. He is a very intelligent former convict. He turned his life from a prisoner to a hot dog stand owner to the owner of a multimillion-dollar business serving the Kremlin, including Putin himself.”
A Russian soldier previously manned a machine gun post in southern Moscow ahead of the expected arrival of Prigozhin and the Wagner troops. But Prigozhin has confirmed that he ordered his mercenaries to stop their march
Tanks were towed from the southern city of Rostov as Prigozhin’s troops retreated from Rostov
Huge crowds gathered in Rostov-on-Don as Wagner’s tanks rolled out of town
People gathered to say goodbye to Prigozhin, with one man even reaching through his car window to shake hands with the exiled Wagner leader
The Kremlin is facing a “deeply unstable” situation after Wagner’s uprising has “exposed the weakness of the regime,” analysts warn.
Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) argue that the “short-term resolution” of an apparent truce with the Wagner Group is likely to “substantially harm” Putin’s government and war effort. to fend off internal threats quickly.
It comes as Ramzan Kadyrov, Putin’s Chechen leader and long-time ally, criticized Prigozhin’s “arrogance” and claimed his actions could lead to “dangerous consequences.”
Wagner fighters left Russia’s southern Voronezh region on Sunday, the local governor said, after the group halted a dramatic uprising to take down Russia’s top power and turned for a march on Moscow.
“The movement of Wagner units through the Voronezh region is coming to an end,” said Voronezh governor Alexander Gusev.
“It is proceeding normally and without incident,” Gusev added, saying that travel restrictions imposed during Saturday’s operation against the mutiny will be lifted once “the situation is finally resolved.”
ISW analysts argue that the apparent truce with Wagner forces is a “short-term solution, not a long-term solution.”
They argued: ‘The uprising exposed the weakness of Russia’s security forces and demonstrated Putin’s inability to deploy his forces in a timely manner to repel an internal threat and further eroded his monopoly on violence.
US intelligence agencies picked up signals days ago that Prigozhin was preparing to revolt against the Russian defense establishment, US media reported Saturday.
A full day before the unfolding, intelligence officials held briefings at the White House, the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill about the possibility of unrest in nuclear-armed Russia, according to the Washington Post and New York Times.
Intelligence agencies first began tracking evidence that Prigozhin and his Wagner mercenaries were planning to go against the Russian military leadership in mid-June, the Post reported.
The Times said the mid-week information was both solid and alarming, sparking a flurry of briefings.
In an uprising that unfolded at dizzying speed, Prigozhin’s troops entered Russia on Friday and took over a regional military command in Rostov-on-Don.
The advance was called off on Saturday after Russian state media reported that Wagner troops would return to Ukraine while Prigozhin fled to Belarus.
The Kremlin said it would not prosecute Prigozhin or the armed members of the Wagner group.
As US intelligence officials captured information that Prigozhin was preparing military action, they began to worry about the chaos in a country with a powerful nuclear arsenal, the Times reported.
Prigozhin also claimed to have shot down a Russian military helicopter in the city – home to the Kremlin’s Ukraine War headquarters
Armored cars blocked a street in the city of Rostov as the sun rose on Saturday
US intelligence agencies believe Putin himself was informed that Prigozhin, once a close ally, was plotting his uprising at least a day before it took place, the Post reported.
Prigozhin will go to Belarus and will not face charges after he called off his troops’ advance on Moscow, the Russian government said, alleviating the country’s most serious security crisis in decades.
The feud between Prigozhin and the Russian military came to a violent climax over the past day, with his troops capturing a key army headquarters in southern Russia on Saturday and then moving north to threaten the capital.
Within hours of Prigozhin’s reversal, the Kremlin announced that he would be leaving for Belarus and that Russia would not prosecute him or Wagner’s members.
It had been a dramatic day, with President Vladimir Putin warning of civil war, Moscow telling locals to stay off the streets, and Kiev reveling in the chaos engulfing its enemy.
The tide turned suddenly when Prigozhin made the stunning announcement that his troops “turned our columns around and went back to field camps” to avoid bloodshed in the Russian capital.
Prigozhin, who has had a bitter row with Moscow’s military leadership even as his unit directed parts of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, said he understood the importance of this moment and did not want to “shed Russian blood.”