Senior US officials were aware of Wagner PMC founder Yevgeny Prigozhin’s intentions days before he announced a ‘march for justice’ against Russian military leaders, reports The New York Times (NYT), The Washington Post (WP) and CNN with reference to sources. Why the United States did not warn Russia about the preparation of the rebellion – in the material Russian media.
The preparation for the rebellion is known from mid-June.
According to the NYT, on Wednesday, June 21, intelligence officials held briefings with officials from President Joe Biden’s administration and the U.S. Department of Defense, advising them of the impending rebellion. The next day, after receiving “additional confirmation”, conversations took place with Congressional leaders.
WP, citing sources, writes that US intelligence agencies received information about Prigozhin’s preparations for a rebellion even earlier – in mid-June. After that, they notified the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, and Congress. CNN, citing its US intelligence sources reported that earlier this week US intelligence agencies briefed Congressional leaders on the movement of Wagner PMC forces and military equipment to Russia’s borders.
According to WP interlocutors, the intelligence services received “enough signals” about the preparation of an armed uprising. At the same time, the American authorities did not know the exact nature of the plans of the PMC, as well as the approximate timetable for their implementation, but at the same time expressed their “strong concern” about the possible consequences of the rebellion, the says the article.
Washington’s primary concern with Prigozhin’s actions was their impact on control of Russia’s nuclear arsenal, the NYT notes. In turn, WP, citing sources, writes that the main fear of US officials was the threat of civil war in the country.
In recent months, intelligence officials have been monitoring the escalating conflict between Prigozhin and the Defense Department leadership, devoting “a lot of time” to analyzing the situation, writes the NYT. According to the publication, leaked Pentagon data showed that the United States had intercepted the conversations of “high-ranking Russian military leaders” who discussed Prigozhin’s requests to supply Wagner PMC with ammunition.
Why Washington did not transfer data to Moscow
Unlike the situation before the start of the military operation in Ukraine, when American publications published information on the preparation for hostilities with reference to intelligence data, this time American intelligence agencies did not publish information through the media. Washington feared Russian President Vladimir Putin would use the posts as a pretext to blame the West, accusing it of staging a coup, the NYT notes.
According to the publication, the US intelligence services kept silent about Prigozhin’s plans also because they did not want to “help” Putin “avoid a serious split”.
According to one of the WP sources, the Russian President “certainly more than 24 hours” knew in advance that Prigozhin planned to carry out a certain plan.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), citing sources informed that due to Prigozhin’s actions, US authorities have decided to postpone the introduction of new sanctions against PMC Wagner, which are expected to affect gold mining companies in Africa. According to the publication, the State Department planned to announce these restrictions on June 27, but the White House decided that against the background of the rebellion, it would appear that the United States “had taken the side” of the Russian leadership.
“Washington doesn’t want to appear to be taking sides on this,” the source told WSJ.
“Informal Contacts”
Italian newspaper La Repubblica, citing information from NATO headquarters informed that the North Atlantic Alliance, fearing a “nuclear incident” due to the situation around Wagner’s PMC, has established “informal contacts” with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. The head of the Russian Defense Ministry is called in the article “the most reliable interlocutor”. As La Repubblica notes, even after the resolution of the situation with the rebellion, NATO’s “alarm” “did not stop” – they, in particular, “focused their attention” on more than 1 .4 thousand Russian nuclear warheads ready for immediate use.
At the same time, on June 24, the American authorities called their colleagues from European countries to “calm” them about the events around the PMC Wagner, informed Politico, quoting a US official. According to the publication’s source, Washington wanted to ensure that European officials would remain neutral on this issue, and urged them “not to celebrate victory”.
According to Politico, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke with G7 and EU colleagues, and also spoke by phone with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba. According to the publication, the head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin, intends to speak with his Ukrainian Minister of Defense, Alexei Reznikov.
The Prigozhin Rebellion
On Friday, June 23, Prigozhin accused the Ministry of Defense of having launched a missile attack on the rear positions of the “Wagnerians” and announced a “march of justice”, in which its fighters intended to “face” “anarchy” in Russia. . On the morning of June 24, PMC fighters took control of military installations in Rostov-on-Don and sent columns of military equipment towards Moscow.
The Defense Ministry called Wagner’s actions a provocation, Russian President Vladimir Putin called them an armed rebellion, a stab in the back and treason. The FSB opened a criminal case against Prigozhin for rebellion. In Moscow, the Moscow region and the Voronezh region, a regime of counter-terrorist operations (CTO) has been introduced.
On the evening of June 24, the press service of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced that the head of the republic had held talks with Prigozhin. As stated in the message of the Belarusian leader’s press service, the founder of the Wagner Group “accepted the proposal” of the head of state “to stop the movement of armed persons” on the territory of Russia. After that, Prigozhin said he deployed columns of PMCs and took the fighters to field camps.
The Russian President’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said the criminal case against Prigozhin would be closed. In turn, the founder of the PMC will leave for Belarus, the Kremlin representative stressed.
Find out about the results and consequences of Prigozhin’s interrupted campaign against Moscow in the material of Russian media. You can study the timeline of the conflict between the founder of Wagner PMC and the Ministry of Defense here.
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