President Joe Biden said the US and NATO played no role in the mercenary rebellion that shook Russia over the weekend, as allied nations continued to puzzle through the consequences for President Vladimir Putin and the conflict in Ukraine.
(Bloomberg) — President Joe Biden said the US and NATO played no role in the mercenary rebellion that shook Russia over the weekend, as allied nations continued to puzzle through the consequences for President Vladimir Putin and the conflict in Ukraine.
“We had nothing to do with it,” Biden said Monday at an event at the White House, in his first public remarks about the matter. “This was part of a struggle within the Russian system.”
Biden said it was still too early to determine the impact of the revolt by Wagner Group mercenaries and their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, which left Putin facing the biggest threat to his grip on the country after nearly a quarter century in power. Officials had spent an anxious few days sorting through what happened and the possibility of leadership chaos in a nation with one of the world’s largest nuclear arsenals.
“The outcome of all this remains to be seen,” Biden said. “We’re going to keep assessing the fallout of this weekend’s events and the implications for Russia and Ukraine. It is still too early to reach a definitive conclusion about where it is going,” he added.
Read more: Putin Faces Historic Threat to Absolute Grip on Power in Russia
Biden said he had told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that “no matter what happened in Russia,” the US and its allies would remain committed to Ukraine’s defense. In keeping with that commitment, the US was set to announce a new $500 million package of aid to Ukraine. It will include as many as 40 Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Stryker wheeled fighting vehicles, according to a US official familiar with the contents.
The equipment drawn from US inventories, reported earlier by Reuters, will include Himars and Patriot missiles, additional Stinger air defense missiles and AT-4 hand-launched missiles, said the official, who asked not to be identified before an announcement expected as soon as Tuesday.
Prigozhin’s forces took over army headquarters in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and then marched to within 200 kilometers (124 miles) of Moscow on Saturday before turning around. He said he was seeking the ouster of Putin’s defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, and other top officials, accusing them of mishandling the invasion of Ukraine and of attempting to “destroy” the Wagner Group.
What initially looked like a serious threat to Putin’s grip on power dissipated quickly. Putin denounced the moves as “treason” and threatened punishment. But Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko brokered a deal in which Prigozhin ended the revolt in return for Putin letting him travel to Belarus and dropping criminal charges against Wagner fighters.
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