War between Ukraine and RussiaFilesThe latest information on the mutiny of the paramilitary group Wagner.
Wagner’s leader allegedly wanted to kidnap high-ranking Russian officials. According to the very reputable Wall Street Journal, the thinker leader of the Wagner paramilitary group, Evguéni Prigojine, sought the arrest of senior Russian defense officials. According to the newspaper, his plans were foiled, which explains the mutiny that began on Friday evening. According to the media, which cites anonymous Western officials – likely US intelligence agencies whose sources are unknown – Prigozhin wanted to arrest Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov during a relocation.
But the Russian secret services (FSB) became aware of the plan and the two officials changed their modus operandi, the Wall Street Journal adds. This would have forced Wagner’s boss to change his plans and occupy the Russian army headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, crucial to the warfare in Ukraine, on Friday night before launching a “march” on Moscow would begin . For months, Wagner’s boss has been accusing the defense minister and chief of staff of being incompetent and of having sent tens of thousands of soldiers to Ukraine to be sacrificed. For the New York Times, too, the Russian General Sergei Surovikin had knowledge of these mutiny plans.
Joe Biden considers Russian President Vladimir Putin an “outcast” and Olaf Scholz “weakened”. According to the President of the United States, his Russian counterpart is a “pariah around the world” who is “clearly losing” the war in Ukraine. Despite everything, Joe Biden thinks it’s too early to say whether Vladimir Putin has been weakened by the failed insurgency by the paramilitary group Wagner. The White House is cautious about the aftermath of this mutiny, as Wagner’s men seized military bases and marched unopposed as much as 200 miles from Moscow before turning back. Chancellor Olaf Scholz, on the other hand, believes that the Russian President is “weakened” and that “autocratic structures and power structures have been cracked” in the country. According to him, the uprising of the mercenary group “will have long-term consequences for Russia.”
Wagner’s presence in Belarus poses “a potential threat” to neighboring countries. Polish President Andrzej Duda believes NATO members bordering Belarus are threatened by the arrival of the Wagner paramilitary group in the country. Belarus on Tuesday announced the arrival on its territory of Yevgeny Prigoyine, leader of the Wagner mercenary group, as part of a deal that ended its 24-hour insurgency in Russia on Saturday. “It is difficult for us to rule out that the presence of the Wagner group in Belarus could pose a potential threat to Poland, which borders Belarus, and a threat to Lithuania.” […]”And possibly also for Latvia, which is also a neighboring country of Belarus,” said President Andrzej Duda during a press conference in Kiev.
“What are the forces of the Wagner Group, i.e. the Russian army, actually used for in Belarus? Should they occupy Belarus or, by threatening a possible attack by Belarus on that country, create an additional threat from the north towards Ukraine? Or is it a form of potential threat directed towards our NATO countries, towards Poland? According to Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, “NATO must unanimously tell Polish and Lithuanian societies that all Wagner fighters will be destroyed if there is even a foot of a Wagner man on the territory of Lithuania or Poland, wherever they are “.
France wants additional sanctions against Wagner. “We will continue to impose strict European sanctions for their actions in Ukraine and in Africa,” assures Olivier Becht, Minister’s Delegate in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who was questioned on Wednesday in the Senate about the Wagner paramilitary group. Outside of Ukraine, Wagner is particularly active in Africa, particularly Mali and the Central African Republic. “We tell the countries that have chosen Wagner and may regret it that it is time to distance themselves from it, because nothing good can come from the chaos that Wagner specializes in,” said the minister again , castigated a “criminal and mafia group possessed of methods, violence, robbery, manipulation and reckoning”.
“Wagner, wherever he worked, made the systematic violation of human rights a basic principle of his actions,” says Olivier Becht, noting that wherever Wagner was present, the jihadist threat only increased when he claimed that to contain them, “whether in Syria, Libya, Mozambique, Mali or the Central African Republic.” He described Wagner as “a real scourge whose only aim is to plunder wealth to the detriment of states and populations” and assured that France was not will remain idle. The United States has announced plans to take new “measures” against Wagner’s activities in Africa this week, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Tuesday.