US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the rebellion by the Wagner mercenaries has exposed “real cracks” in Vladimir Putin’s authority.
He told CBS News talk show Face the Nation that the uprising by the private army and its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was “a direct challenge to Putin’s authority”, saying it “raises profound questions, it shows real cracks”.
He has told ABC’s This Week: “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 Moscow, Russia’s capital, against a mercenary of his own making”.
He said he didn’t want to speculate on the “cracks emerging” would lead.
Military experts have said the Russian President’s regime has suffered ‘substantial damage’ as a result of the rebellion.
The events showcased the “degradation” of Russia’s military reserves, the erosion of Mr Putin’s monopoly on his security services and the lack of experience of those conscripts defending Russian borders, the Institute for the Study of War said.
While Dr Patricia Lewis, director of the International Security programme at the Chatham House think tank, said Mr Putin has been “weakened” by the events in the country.
The head of the Russian military company Wagner is set to move to neighbouring Belarus as part of a deal to end his rebellion.
After Yevgeny Prigozhin called off his mutiny on Saturday, Wagner fighters have left he southern city of Rostov-on-Don where their mutiny began. Mr Prigozhin and his troops will not be prosecuted, the Kremlin says.
The announcement on Saturday evening followed a statement from the office of Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko saying that he had negotiated a deal with Mr Prigozhin after previously discussing the issue with Mr Putin.
