- Biden’s Denial of US Involvement in Russian Mercenary Uprising
- Lavrov’s Allegations of Western Espionage Involvement
- Surkov’s Call to End Mercenary Organizations in Russia
On Monday, US President Joe Biden stated that a brief uprising by Russian mercenaries against the Kremlin was part of a struggle within the Russian system and that neither the United States nor its allies were involved.
“We made it clear we were not involved, we had nothing to do with this.” Biden said in his first remarks on the Wagner mercenaries’ weekend-long uprising that fizzled out.
Biden discussed the weekend power struggle when mutineers approached Moscow but stopped short at a White House event.
Monday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted by TASS as saying that Russian intelligence services were investigating whether Western espionage agencies played a role in the aborted mutiny.
Biden said he had a video conference with key allies to guarantee a coordinated reaction.
Putin’s former ‘puppet master’ advises an end to mercenary organizations such as Wagner.
“They concurred with me that we must deny (Russian President Vladimir) Putin any justification for blaming this on the West and NATO,” he stated.
He stated that he and his team would continue to evaluate the incident’s repercussions. “It is too soon to draw a definitive conclusion about where this is headed,” he added.
After a mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner militia, the former chief strategist of President Vladimir Putin on Monday urged an end to mercenary groups in Russia, warning that they interfere with the chain of command.
Private military concept imported from the United States
Friends and foes alike once referred to Vladislav Surkov as the Kremlin’s puppet master. He stated that “private military companies” were a concept imported from the United States, created to engage in proxy wars.
According to our understanding, a military unit cannot be private. Surkov, who left the Kremlin in 2020, stated in an interview published by his associate Alexei Chesnakov that this is entirely at odds with Russian political, managerial, and military culture.
Such groups, according to Surkov, risked transforming Russia into “some kind of Eurasian tribal zone” while dividing the command of the armed forces as Russia conducted what the Kremlin refers to as a “special military operation” (SVO) in Ukraine.
“Why do we need them when we are openly fighting for Ukraine?” No proxy conflict here. This is the SVO,” said Surkov.
The army must be strengthened with both armaments and a unified command structure.
Surkov helped Putin create his tightly regulated political system as the Kremlin’s first deputy chief from 1999 until 2011.
Prigozhin said the Wagner force’s one-day mutiny was meant to protest the Russian government’s inept handling of the Ukraine war.
“On February 24, 2022, we presented a master class, as it should have been. In an 11-minute Telegram audio message, he declared we did not intend to remove the regime and duly elected government.
Prigozhin reiterated an unsubstantiated allegation that the Russian military had attacked a Wagner camp with missiles and then helicopters, murdering approximately 30 of its men, and stated that this was the immediate cause of what he termed a “march of justice.”
