According to US intelligence, Yevgeny Prigozhin had been planning to challenge Russia’s military leadership for some time, but for Biden’s secret services and those of other Western countries, it was not clear what the ultimate goal was, nor when he would do it. The plan has begun.
CNN reports thatwhich cites three different sources within US intelligence, declaring that earlier this week, intelligence officials specifically tipped off a small group of congressional leaders, known as the Gang of Eight, about the Wagner Group’s movements.
Although US and other Western intelligence agencies had been watching Prigozhin’s preparations for some time, such as stockpiles of weapons and ammunition being piled up on Russia’s borders, the rapid escalation of events caught them by surprise.
The speed with which the situation escalated caused an earthquake. US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who was due to fly to Copenhagen for talks on Ukraine, stayed in the US, as did Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, who canceled planned trips abroad to deal with the crisis.
Now the assumption in Washington is that a truce is far from the conclusion of the story. “It’s too early to say where this will end up,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on CNN’s mics. “My impression is that the situation is still moving.” Washington’s main concern is the nuclear escalation, and the US media reported that during telephone conversations between Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Schultz and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the US president stressed the need not to give any credibility to Putin’s claims about hypothetical Western interference.
The message was to “keep the temperature down,” in line with a mantra Biden has been repeating to his team for months, the goal being to avoid “World War III.”
And yesterday, speaking publicly about the Russian crisis for the first time, Biden reiterated that “the United States has nothing to do with the rebellion in Russia,” and that “Putin cannot blame the West for this.”
Also high The European Union’s representative for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell, stated that it was “not a good thing” for a nuclear power like Russia to face political instability, and said the nuclear threat was “something to take into account”. This was echoed by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who stressed from Vilnius how the weekend’s events are evidence of “the great strategic mistake made by President Putin with his illegal annexation of Crimea and war against Ukraine”. But he added, “There is no indication – as he says – that Moscow is preparing to use nuclear weapons.”
The US State Department holds the same opinion, according to which there has been no change in the disposition of the Union’s nuclear forces. At the moment, the United States has no reason to change its position as a nuclear or conventional power. We have established long-term channels of communication with Russia on nuclear issues.
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