The United States and its allies had “nothing to do” with the Wagner mercenary group’s insurgency against Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and his military command, President Biden said Monday, his first public comments on the short-lived insurgency that turned into an insurgency had led to an extraordinary crisis weekend in Russia.
“This was part of a struggle within the Russian system,” Mr. Biden told reporters at the White House before announcing an Internet infrastructure initiative.
Mr Biden said he directed his national security team to brief him “hour by hour” and “prepare for a range of scenarios.” He also said he called a conference call to coordinate with some of the United States’ key allies as the mutiny led by Wagner founder Yevgeny V Prigozhin began to unfold over the weekend.
On the call, Mr. Biden said, the allies agreed not to give Mr. Putin “an excuse to blame it on the West or NATO.” He added: “We made it clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it.”
Mr Biden said he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with whom he spoke on Sunday, would remain in touch. Mr. Biden said the United States would continue to assess the fallout from the crisis in Russia and closely coordinate responses with its allies. Still, he warned, it’s “too early to draw any firm conclusions about where this is headed.”
Mr Prigozhin was last seen in public late Saturday after breaking up Wagner’s brief revolt. He agreed to cancel his troops’ march to Moscow under an agreement that would end criminal investigations into his activities and allow him to travel to Belarus. On Monday, Mr. Prigozhin broke his silence, claiming his advance on Moscow was never intended as an attempt to seize power.
In a separate news conference, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters Monday that he didn’t know if Mr. Prigozhin was in Belarus and that he had “no assessment whatsoever” of Mr. Prigozhin’s whereabouts. He added that the United States did not know what would happen to the Wagner fighters in Ukraine or Africa, calling the situation “dynamic”.
Still, Mr. Miller said, the meaning of Mr. Prigozhin’s power play is clear.
“It’s certainly something new to see President Putin’s leadership directly challenged,” he said, noting that Mr Prigozhin has publicly questioned the reasons for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, something “that we, Russian officials, have certainly never seen before”.
Mr. Miller added that the United States “has not taken a position on the leadership of the Russian Federation.” We do not take a stand on the leadership of the Russian Defense Ministry.”
“Our policy has always been guided by the measures taken by Russia,” he said.
While Mr. Miller may have been articulating official U.S. policy, President Biden has previously expressed a different personal opinion.
“For God’s sake, this man cannot stay in power,” Mr Biden said of Mr Putin during a visit to Poland in March 2022.
Mr Miller also said that US Ambassador to Russia Lynne M. Tracy contacted the Russian government on Saturday and reminded Russian officials of their obligation to protect the US embassy and diplomatic staff in Moscow.
Mr Miller said that Ms Tracy also reiterated assurances that the Biden administration viewed the insurgency as an internal Russian matter, “one in which the United States is not and will not be involved.”