Joe Biden has been briefed on the chaotic situation in Russia with US officials describing it as “serious”.
The president was being kept informed as Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was accused by Moscow of launching an armed rebellion.
A White House National Security Council spokesman said: “We are monitoring the situation and will be consulting with allies and partners on these developments.”
A US official told CNN this crisis was “real” but the Pentagon and White House were waiting to see how it developed.
Steve Hall, former CIA chief of Russia operations, said it was in a “different league” to Prigozhin’s previous complaints against the Russian military hierarchy.
Wouldn’t surprise me if it was just a ruse by the Kremlin to start pulling out of Ukraine under the guise of having to deal with a crisis in Russia’s own borders. I honestly suspect they’re trying to figure out the best way to bail without losing face.
On the other hand, maybe it’s exactly as it seems and the wheels are starting to come off as there is unrest within the Russian ranks at a lack of purpose and huge loss of life for no gain. Or maybe it’s just mercenaries being mercenaries and having no loyalty to anyone.
Hard to know what to believe with anything that involves the Kremlin.
Putin’s now fled Moscow to Tver. He’s made himself look weak and scared, which is incredibly personally dangerous for any strongman dictator and IMO completely rules out a trick. He might well have sanctioned Prigozhin’s earlier outbursts - he certainly kept to the rule of pretending that Putin himself was infallible, and only being given bad advice by Shoigu - but the only way this ends now is with either Putin or Prigozhin dead.
Yeah, but if it is a ruse, how does Prigozhin wind up? Can’t imagine him going back to… whatever he was doing… after faking like he’s starting a civil war. I’d imagine a high cost for going along with it. Also Putin seems too proud to make up a scenario like this where he looks like he’s running away.
But also I should admit I don’t know anything about any of this.
I also don’t know anything and I agree. There’s a lot of smoke in mirrors from Russian command, but I don’t see how faking an internal coup would be helpful for Putin. They’ve seemingly already made their way through multiple towns and are fighting into Moscow. They’ve been the sledgehammer this whole conflict and they turned around on a dime, who knows how this is going to turn out.
As the fall guy.
I don’t think this holds water, Putin was never that brilliant but I doubt he’s dumb enough for this kind of 4-D face eating leopard chess.
It makes him look so weak and just about the only thing he has been good at is projecting strength.