The coup attempt by Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin shows “real cracks” in Vladimir Putin’s power group in Russia, Foreign Minister Anthony Blinken said on Sunday (June 26).
America’s top diplomat said on CBS News’ Face the Nation talk show that the Russian tyrant’s reputation had been significantly tarnished by last weekend’s bid to overthrow him.
Blinken called the short-lived revolt “a direct challenge to Putin’s authority.” So this raises deep questions, it shows real cracks.”
“Prigozhin himself throughout this incident has raised profound questions about the very premises of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in the first place.
“This is an unfolding story,” he added. “We haven’t seen the last act yet.” “We’re watching it very closely.”
He later told ABC’s This Week that it could also hamper his military attack on Ukrainian cities.
“To the extent that Russians are distracted and divided, it could make their pursuit of aggression against Ukraine more difficult,” he said.
Blinken made his remarks in an interview with popular CBS News talk show Face the Nation Sunday morning.
Prigozhin, the head of the feared Wagner mercenary group, was seen being expelled from Rostov-on-Don on Saturday night after calling off his short-lived uprising
Prigozhin, who has become known as “Putin’s chef” after securing lucrative catering deals with the Kremlin, canceled his plans for a march on Moscow on Saturday night.
The move came after he reportedly held talks with Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko over fears of a possible civil war.
Putin had vowed to punish those behind the rebellion “brutally” and accused 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 biggest critics of the Russian Defense Ministry’s warfare, 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. is dropped
It remains unclear whether the self-proclaimed “private military company” will continue to play a major role in Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
Social media accounts associated with the group, including Telegram channel The Gray Zone, have not commented on Wagner’s next steps.
The recruits, many drafted from maximum-security prisons across Russia, were deployed to the front lines, including in the battle for the town of Bakhmut in eastern Donbas.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s chief propagandist, said Wagner militants could now strike a deal directly with Moscow if they so wished.
The row between Moscow and Prigozhin erupted on Saturday morning when his men claimed they had seized a southern military headquarters in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, near Ukraine’s occupied Crimea peninsula.
The Wagner group mainly recruited convicts from Russia’s most notorious prisons to increase their numbers on the front lines
Wagner fighters were filmed committing heinous atrocities in Ukraine, including beheadings and castrations.
They also claimed to have taken another regional command in Voronezh, another town on the route north towards Moscow.
Known for their particularly brutal tactics, Wagner fighters were filmed committing a series of horrifying atrocities
Gruesome videos, widely shared on the Telegram news service, show their men beheading and castrating Ukrainian soldiers.
Another footage shows the execution of a reported deserter and suspected collaborator with Kiev, who was beaten to death with a sledgehammer.