26 June 2023 , 09:01
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The US has said the aborted coup by Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin shows Vladimir Putin's Russia is showing signs of fracturing.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Prigozhin’s criticism of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine "create more cracks in the Russian facade."
He said: “If you put this in context, 16 months ago Putin was on the doorstep of Kyiv in Ukraine, looking to take the city in a matter of days, erase the country from the map.
“Now he’s had to defend Russia’s capital against a mercenary of his own making – we see cracks emerging.”
Prigozhin said the Russian Ministry of Defence was trying to "deceive the public" in the reasons it gave for invading Urkaine.
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Reports indicate the US had intelligence Prigozhin was amassing his troops on the Russian border, challenging the former chef's claim that it was in response to an attack on Russian field camps by the Putin regime.
A number of his men were killed, Prigozhin said, but the Russian Defence Ministry denied attacking the camps.
'We see cracks emerging,' Blinken said (AFP via Getty Images)US Representative Mike Turner, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, said Prigozhin's march on Moscow appeared to have been planned in advance.
"This is something that would have had to have been planned for a significant amount of time to be executed in the manner in which it was," Turner said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
Prigozhin ended his brief rebellion on Sunday and ordered his troops, then en route to Moscow, back to their positions on the Ukrainian front.
The reasons why a deal was reached is unclear, but negotiations were brokered between Putin and Prigozhin by Belarusian leader Alexandr Lukashenko.
Prigozhin ended his brief rebellion on Sunday (AP)Before starting the revolt, Prigozhin had blasted Shoigu and General Staff Chief General Valery Gerasimov with expletive-ridden insults for months, attacking them for failing to provide his troops with enough ammunition during the battle for Bakhmut, the war's longest and bloodiest battle.
"It is too soon to tell exactly where they go and when they get there, but certainly we have all sorts of new questions that Putin is going to have to address in the weeks and months ahead," Blinken added on NBC's 'Meet the Press'.
It is not yet clear what the fissures opened by the 24-hour rebellion would mean for the war in Ukraine.
The Wagner troops, who had shown their effectiveness in scoring the Kremlin's only land victory in months in Bakhmut, were pulled from the battlefield.
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Chechen soldiers were sent to stop them on the approach to Moscow.
The Wagner forces' largely unopposed, rapid advance also exposed vulnerabilities in Russia's security and military forces. The mercenary soldiers were reported to have downed several helicopters and a military communications plane. The Defense Ministry has not commented.