Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a video address, on June 24, 2023, as Wagner fighters rebel.
Gavriil Grigorov | AFP | Getty Images
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said much was still unknown about the turmoil in Russia on Saturday, but the infighting exposed “cracks” in the country that “didn’t exist before.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin faced a violent, attempted insurrection on Saturday by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a longtime ally of Putin who leads private mercenary fighters called the Wagner Group. But less than 24 hours after Wagner’s mercenaries appeared to have taken control of the strategic southern city of Rostov and began an armed convoy march toward Moscow, Prigozhin suddenly announced that the armed rebellion was over.
In exchange for the return, the criminal case against Prigozhin was dropped, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian reporters, according to state-controlled TASS. Prigozhin himself is “going to Belarus,” Peskov said, describing what appeared to be some kind of official exile.
Prigozhin played a key role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, so his departure could change the course of the war. And though his rebellion was short-lived, it marked the most serious challenge to Putin’s regime in decades.
The head of the Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin leaves the headquarters of the Southern Military District on June 24, 2023 in Rostov-on-Don, Russia.
Stringer | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
“This is one more chapter in a very, very bad book that Putin has written for Russia,” Blinken told CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday.
Blinken said that Prigozhin was responsible for “terrible atrocities” in Ukraine, and that in many ways, Prigozhin was a direct creation of Putin. He said it was too early to say exactly what the rift between the two men would mean for Russia, but that the US remained “very focused” on Ukraine.
Prigozhin’s direct challenge to Putin’s authority was “extraordinary,” Blinken added, because Prigozhin was able to raise questions about the motivations for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the first place.
He said the war ultimately turned out to be “a devastating, strategic failure” for Putin.
“We have seen that this aggression against Ukraine has been a total strategic failure,” he said. “Russia is weaker economically, militarily, its status in the world has fallen.”
Blinken expects the US to learn more details about the deal between Putin and Prigozhin, as well as the future Wagner Group, in the coming weeks and months.
