New York Times: America knew about Wagner’s plan for armed action against Moscow

According to the report of the Fars International News Agency, the American newspaper “New York Times” quoted sources and reported that a few days before the armed rebellion of the “Wagner” group in Russia by the order of its head “Yevgeny Prigozhin”, the American intelligence agencies strongly suspected that He is planning a major action against the Russian government.

According to unnamed sources who spoke to this newspaper, the Joe Biden administration and US military commanders were briefed on the Wagner group’s amagi on Wednesday, and upon receiving more details, another meeting with a small group of US congressional leaders was held on Thursday.

The situation in Russia escalated Friday night when Prigozhin accused the Russian Defense Ministry of a deadly missile attack on the Wagner camp and vowed to retaliate. An accusation that the Ministry of Defense of Russia rejected.

In the following hours, Wagner’s forces captured military installations in the southern Russian city of Rostov, and Prigozhin announced that his forces had begun an advance with a plan to reach Moscow.

After that, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his short and sharp speech, called the actions of the forces under Prigozhin’s command “treason inside the country” and “armed rebellion” and said: whoever organized this rebellion tried to destroy the country. surrender and drag it into civil war.

Referring to issuing the necessary orders to neutralize the organizers of the current “armed rebellion” in Russia, he sharply warned: “We will give a tough response to this armed rebellion.”

Hours later, with the mediation of the President of Belarus, President Wagner agreed to stop the advance and withdraw his forces in exchange for security guarantees.

Before the uprising began, Washington officials did not rush to inform Putin of the imminent threat against Russia because, according to The New York Times, they feared Moscow would accuse them of orchestrating the coup. According to the New York Times, in addition, in the midst of the war in Ukraine and the confrontation between Russia and the West, America is not interested in helping Putin.

However, according to the report, the Americans were concerned about a possible conflict between Prigogine and Moscow because they feared that Russia’s plunge into any geomorphology would create significant nuclear risks.

Earlier, the American newspaper “Wall Street Journal” reported, quoting informed sources, that Washington plans to delay the imposition of new sanctions against the Wagner group due to Yevgeny Prigogine’s rebellion against the Kremlin. One of the sources cited by this American newspaper stated that the reason for the decision of the United States is “the concern that the sanctions will ultimately help Russian President Vladimir Putin.”

CNN repeated the New York Times report and claimed that American officials believed that Prigozhin had plans to challenge the Russian military, but did not know what his ultimate goal was.

According to the sources of this American network, the authorities of this country were already aware of the preparations of President Wagner, including his efforts to collect weapons and ammunition. However, the source cited by the report said that all this happened very quickly and it was difficult to understand the seriousness of Prigozhin’s threats against the Russian military.

The American newspaper “Washington Post” also reported that in the middle of this month (June) US spies found out that Prigozhin was planning an armed operation in Russia. The information raised concerns about whether Vladimir Putin would remain in power and what any instability could mean for control of Russia’s nuclear arsenal, according to the claim.

On Saturday, while the Wagner Rebellion was still at its height, the Russian Foreign Ministry warned the West that any attempt to exploit the unrest to achieve Russophobic goals would be futile. Dmitry Medvedev, the former president of Russia and deputy of the Security Council of this country, also said, “A coup in a nuclear power can have disastrous consequences, and Moscow will never allow it to happen.”

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