The USA and its allies had “nothing to do with” the Wagner mercenary group’s rebellion in opposition to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and his army command, President Biden mentioned on Monday, his first public feedback on the short-lived revolt that incited a unprecedented weekend of disaster in Russia.
“This was a part of a wrestle inside the Russian system,” Mr. Biden informed reporters on the White Home forward of an announcement on an web infrastructure initiative.
Mr. Biden mentioned he had instructed his nationwide safety workforce to temporary him “hour by hour” and to “put together for a variety of situations.” He additionally mentioned that he had convened a convention name to coordinate with a few of the United States’ key allies because the mutiny led by the Wagner founder Yevgeny V. Prigozhin started unfolding over the weekend.
On the decision, Mr. Biden mentioned, the allies agreed to present Mr. Putin “no excuse guilty this on the West or guilty this on NATO.” He added, “We made clear that we weren’t concerned. We had nothing to do with it.”
Mr. Biden mentioned he and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, whom he spoke with on Sunday, would keep involved. Mr. Biden mentioned that the USA would proceed to evaluate the fallout from the disaster in Russia and intently align responses with its allies. Nonetheless, he cautioned, it was “nonetheless too early to succeed in a definitive conclusion about the place that is going.”
Mr. Prigozhin was final seen in public late Saturday after calling off Wagner’s temporary revolt. He agreed to name off his forces’ march to Moscow below a deal that will halt a prison investigation into his actions and permit him to go to Belarus. On Monday, Mr. Prigozhin broke his silence to assert that his advance on Moscow had by no means been supposed as a bid to grab energy.
In a separate information briefing, the State Division spokesman, Matthew Miller, informed reporters on Monday that he didn’t know whether or not Mr. Prigozhin was in Belarus and that he had “no evaluation” of Mr. Prigozhin’s location in any respect. He added that the USA didn’t know what would occur to Wagner fighters in Ukraine or Africa, calling the scenario “dynamic.”
Even so, Mr. Miller mentioned, the importance of Mr. Prigozhin’s energy play was clear.
“It’s definitely a brand new factor to see President Putin’s management straight challenged,” he mentioned, noting that Mr. Prigozhin had publicly questioned the rationale for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, one thing that “we definitely haven’t seen coming from Russian officers beforehand.”
Mr. Miller added that the USA did “not take a place on the management of the Russian Federation. We don’t take a place on the management of the Russian Ministry of Protection.”
“Our insurance policies have all the time been with respect to actions that Russia has taken,” he mentioned.
Whereas Mr. Miller might have been articulating official U.S. coverage, President Biden has beforehand expressed a special private view.
“For God’s sake, this man can not stay in energy,” Mr. Biden mentioned of Mr. Putin throughout a March 2022 go to to Poland.
Mr. Miller additionally mentioned that the U.S. ambassador to Russia, Lynne M. Tracy, had contacted the Russian authorities on Saturday, reminding Russian officers of their obligations to guard the U.S. embassy and diplomatic personnel in Moscow.
Mr. Miller mentioned that Ms. Tracy had additionally reiterated assurances that the Biden administration noticed the rebellion as an inside Russian matter, “one wherein the USA is just not concerned and won’t be concerned.”
