Quite frankly, it’s not good for the Russian people.” “It’s not good for, certainly, Ukraine and not good for our allies and partners in Europe. “One thing that we have always talked about, unabashedly so, is that it’s in nobody’s interest for this war to escalate beyond the level of violence that is already visited upon the Ukrainian people,” Kirby said at a White House news briefing. Putin and the Kremlin have made repeated references to Russia’s nuclear weapons since invading Ukraine 16 months ago, aiming to discourage NATO countries from ratcheting up their support to Ukraine. But national security spokesman John Kirby addressed one concern raised frequently by the public, news media and others as the world watched the cracks opening in Putin’s hold on power - worries that the Russian leader might take extreme action to reassert his command. He had directed them to “prepare for a range of scenarios” as Russia’s crisis unfolded, he said.īiden did not elaborate on the scenarios. They rolled for hundreds of kilometers toward Moscow, before turning around on Saturday, in a deal whose terms remain uncertain.īiden’s national security team briefed him hourly as Prigozhin’s forces were on the move, the president said. and NATO “don’t want to be blamed for the appearance of trying to destabilize Putin,” McFaul said.Ī feud between Prigozhin and Russia’s military brass that has festered throughout the war erupted into the mutiny that saw the mercenaries leave Ukraine to seize a military headquarters in a southern Russian city. involvement in events - including democratic uprisings in former Soviet countries, and campaigns by democracy activists inside and outside Russia - as a way to diminish public support among Russians for those challenges to the Russian system. ambassador to Russia, said Putin in the past has alleged clandestine U.S. “This was part of a struggle within the Russian system.” We had nothing to do with it,” Biden said. “We made clear that we were not involved. In a video call between Biden and leaders of U.S.-allied countries over the weekend, all were determined to give Putin “no excuse to blame this on the West,” Biden told reporters at the White House. Putin, in his first public comments since the rebellion, said “Russia’s enemies” had hoped the mutiny would succeed in dividing and weakening Russia, “but they miscalculated.” He identified the enemies as “the neo-Nazis in Kyiv, their Western patrons and other national traitors.”Īnd Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the special services were already investigating whether Western intelligence services were involved in Prigozhin’s rebellion. “But it’s still too early to reach a definitive conclusion about where this is going.”
“We’re going to keep assessing the fallout of this weekend’s events and the implications from Russia and Ukraine,” Biden said. They are concerned that Putin could use accusations of Western involvement to rally Russians to his defense.īiden and administration officials declined an immediate assessment of what the 22-hour uprising by the Wagner Group might mean for Russia’s war in Ukraine, for mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin or for Russia itself. allies supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion emphasized their intent to be seen as staying out of the mercenaries’ stunning insurgency, the biggest threat to Putin in his two decades leading Russia. WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden declared Monday that the United States and NATO played no part in the Wagner mercenary group’s short-lived insurrection in Russia, calling the uprising and the longer-term challenges it poses for President Vladimir Putin’s authority “a struggle within the Russian system.”īiden and U.S.
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