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US officials saw signs Prigozhin was planning challenge to Russian military but surprised by rapid escalation

25 June 2023 10:56 (UTC +04:00)

US intelligence officials believe that Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of the private Wagner military group, had been planning a major challenge to Russia’s military leadership for quite some time, but it was unclear what the ultimate aim would be, APA reports citing CNN.

Intelligence officials briefed congressional leaders known as the Gang of Eight earlier this week concerning Wagner group movements and equipment buildups near Russia, two of the people said.

US and Western intelligence officials saw signs that Prigozhin was making preparations for such a move, including by massing weapons and ammunition, one Western intelligence official and another person familiar with the intelligence said.

A source familiar with the intelligence said “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 Friday to retaliate against Russian military leadership over an alleged strike on a Wagner military camp and claimed control of military facilities in two Russian cities. Yet by Saturday afternoon, he published an audio recording claiming he was turning his forces around from a march toward Moscow, just hours after launching an insurrection that posed the greatest threat to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s authority in decades.

“We are turning our columns around and going back in the other direction toward our field camps, in accordance with the plan,” he said in a message on Telegram after his forces claimed control of several military facilities and after he dispatched some of his troops toward 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, a key Putin ally, that ended the armed insurrection.

As the situation unfolds, US and Western officials have been careful not to weigh in because of how Putin could weaponize any perceived involvement by the West in the escalating crisis, sources familiar with the administration’s thinking told CNN.