War between Russia and Ukraine: Russia drops the criminal case against the mercenary leader, but his future remains uncertain
The United States and its allies had “nothing to do” with the Wagner mercenary group’s uprising against Russia’s President Vladimir V. Putin and his military command, President Biden said Monday, making his first public remarks about the short-lived uprising that led to a extraordinary weekend of crisis in Russia.
“This was part of a battle within the Russian system,” Biden told reporters at the White House ahead of an announcement about an internet infrastructure initiative.
Mr Biden said he had instructed his national security team to brief him “hour after hour” and “prepare for a range of scenarios”. He also said he arranged 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.
During the call, Mr Biden said, allies agreed to give Mr Putin “no excuse to blame this on the West or NATO”. He added: “We made it clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it.”
Biden said he and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, with whom he spoke on Sunday, would stay in touch. Mr Biden said the United States would continue to assess the impact of the crisis in Russia and closely coordinate responses with its allies. Still, he cautioned that it was “too early to reach a definitive conclusion about where this is headed.”
Mr Prigozhin was last seen in public late on Saturday after fighting off Wagner’s brief revolt. He agreed to break off his troops’ march on Moscow under a deal that would stop a criminal investigation into his activities and allow him to go to Belarus. On Monday, Mr Prigozhin broke his silence to claim that his advance into Moscow was never intended as an attempt to seize power.
In a separate news briefing, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Monday that he did not know whether Mr Prigozhin was in Belarus and that he had “no assessment at all” of Mr Prigozhin’s location. He added that the United States did not know what would happen to Wagner fighters in Ukraine or Africa, calling the situation “dynamic”.
Still, Mr. Miller said, the significance of Mr. Prigozhin’s power play was clear.
“It is certainly new to see President Putin’s leadership directly challenged,” he said, pointing out that Mr Prigozhin had publicly questioned the rationale for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, something that “we certainly hadn’t thought of before.” Russian officials have seen”.
Mr. Miller added that the United States “has not taken a position on the leadership of the Russian Federation. We are not taking a position on the leadership of the Russian Ministry of Defense.”
“Our policy has always been focused on actions that Russia has taken,” he said.
While Mr. Miller may have been stating official US policy, President Biden has previously expressed a different personal opinion.
“For God’s sake, this man can’t stay in power,” Mr Biden said about Mr Putin during a visit to Poland in March 2022.
Mr. Miller also said US Ambassador to Russia Lynne M. Tracy contacted the Russian government on Saturday to remind Russian officials of their obligations to protect the US embassy and diplomatic staff in Moscow.
Mr Miller said Ms Tracy had also reiterated assurances that the Biden administration saw the uprising as an internal Russian affair, “one in which the United States is not and will not be involved”.