US says Wagner Group rebellion reveals ‘extraordinary’ cracks in the ‘Russian facade’

• Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group rebelled this weekend, nearly reaching Moscow before calling it off.
• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the events “extraordinary.”
• The insurrection revealed “cracks” in Russia’s “military facade,” Blinken added.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Wagner Group’s uprising against Russian President Vladimir Putin shows “cracks” in the Russian regime.

The Wagner Group, a powerful paramilitary organization led by former Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, took over a Russian military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don without issue on Saturday and then continued to push toward Moscow.

Prigozhin then suddenly called off the march just 120 miles from Moscow after Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko brokered an apparent deal. 

Putin, who — in the middle of it all — may have fled the city on his presidential plane, has emerged from the ordeal not in the best of shape. An array of experts say the rebellion weakened Putin.

Blinken seems to agree. 

Blinken was just one of many US officials monitoring the situation in Russia on Saturday as the Wagner Group marched toward Moscow. Blinken told “Meet the Press” on NBC News that the public challenge to Putin’s authority was “extraordinary.”

“Think about it this way: 16 months ago, Russian forces were on the doorstep of Kyiv in Ukraine, believing they would take the capital in a matter of days and erase the country from the map as an independent country. Now, what we’ve seen is Russia having to defend Moscow, its capital, against mercenaries of its own making,” Blinken said. 

“I think we’ve seen more cracks emerge in the Russian facade,” Blinken added.

As for the implications for Prigozhin and the future of the Wagner Group, Blinken said it’s too soon to tell but that those questions pose a distraction for Putin that may be “to the advantage of Ukraine.”

“We’ll see if this means that Wagner forces are coming out of Ukraine. I mean, the very fact that over the weekend, Wagner forces were coming out of Ukraine and going into Russia and toward Moscow, in and of itself, is extraordinary,” Blinken said. “But where this goes, whether those forces remain in Ukraine, whether they become integrated into the regular Russian military, what it means for Wagner in Africa — too soon to tell.”