Washington
CNN
—
U.S. intelligence officials believe Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the private military group Wagner, had been planning a major challenge to Russia’s military leadership for quite some time, but it was unclear what the ultimate goal would be, they three people familiar with the matter told CNN. .
Intelligence officials briefed congressional leaders known as the Gang of Eight earlier this week about the Wagner group’s movements and build-up of equipment near Russia, two of the people said.
U.S. and Western intelligence officials saw signs that Prigozhin was preparing for such a move, including by stockpiling weapons and ammunition, a Western intelligence official and another person said. familiar with intelligence.
A source familiar with the intelligence said that “it all happened very quickly” and it was difficult to discern how serious Prigozhin was about threatening the Russian military and where he would take his troops.
Prigozhin had vowed on Friday to retaliate against the Russian military leadership for an alleged attack on a Wagner military camp and claimed control of military installations in two Russian cities. However, on Saturday afternoon, he released an audio recording saying he was reversing his forces from a march on Moscow, just hours after launching an insurgency that posed the biggest threat to the authority of the Russian President Vladimir Putin in decades.
“We are turning our columns and going back in the other direction to our field camps, according to the plan,” he said in a message on Telegram after his forces claimed control of several military installations and after he sent some of his troops. towards Moscow
The Kremlin said later Saturday that Prigozhin had agreed to leave Russia for Belarus in a deal apparently brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko that ended the armed insurgency.
As the situation unfolds, U.S. and Western officials have been careful not to intervene because of how Putin could weaponize any perceived Western involvement in the escalating crisis, sources familiar with the situation told CNN. administration thinking.
Officials across the administration called emergency meetings Friday night to assess the events, which unfolded so quickly that they caught U.S. and European officials off guard, the sources said.
President Joe Biden spoke with the leaders of France, Germany and the United Kingdom on Saturday about the situation unfolding in Russia and reaffirmed their “unwavering support for Ukraine,” according to a White House readout.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s office confirmed on Saturday that he had spoken with officials from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the European Union.
During the discussion, “Secretary Blinken reiterated that U.S. support for Ukraine will not change,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, adding that the U.S. “will remain in close coordination” with the western officials.
Blinken also made calls Saturday to his counterparts in Ukraine, Turkey and Poland, the State Department said.
The U.K. held a meeting of its emergency government task force to discuss the unfolding events, a spokesman for the U.K.’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office told CNN on Saturday.
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine stalled earlier this year, U.S. officials determined last year that there was an ongoing internal power struggle between the Wagner group and the Russian government, CNN previously reported . However, U.S. and European intelligence officials did not predict that Prigozhin would move to storm Russia’s Rostov region with his forces, according to sources familiar with the intelligence.
“It’s very difficult to tell how much was talk and how much was real,” one of the sources told CNN. “The tension had been building for so long without anything really happening.”
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were briefed by their national security team on the latest developments in Russia on Saturday and will continue to be briefed throughout the day, according to a White House statement.
“We continue to monitor the situation,” National Security Council spokesman Adam Hodge told CNN on Saturday afternoon.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also discussed the situation in Russia with his counterparts from Canada, France, Germany, Poland and the UK, Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement Saturday.
A European intelligence official told CNN that “the temperature had obviously been rising,” but few could have predicted what Prigozhin was planning. The official said the West will be watching how this plays out in the next 24 to 48 hours, after which supply shortages for Wagner’s forces will likely begin to occur.
It is not clear to American or European officials how far in advance Prigozhin was planning the rebellion. A source familiar with Western intelligence said it appeared it must have taken at least several days to organize. Another source, however, noted that Rostov is very close to the front line in Ukraine, so it may not have required much foresight.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that the conflict had exposed Russia’s “weakness”, and a Ukrainian defense spokesman called it a “sign of the collapse of the Putin regime”. .
“The weakness of Russia is obvious. Weakness on a large scale,” Zelensky he said in a tweet. “And the longer Russia keeps its troops and mercenaries on our land, the more chaos, pain and trouble it will have for itself later.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
