Appearing Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, secretary of state Antony Blinken said that the Wagner rebellion shows how far the country has fallen since the invasion of Ukraine began last February.
“Sixteen months ago Russian forces were on the doorstep of Kyiv, Ukraine thinking they were going to take the city in a matter of days, erase the country from the map,” explained Blinken. “Now they have to be focused on defending Moscow, Russia’s capital, against mercenaries of [President Vladimir] Putin’s own making.”
On Friday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of the Wagner mercenaries, turned his attention away from the front and began a stunning incursion into Russia itself. Wagner troops were seen occupying Rostov-on-Don, a key logistics hub in the south of Russia, and a Wagner column approach Moscow, the capital. As he has in the past, Prigozhin railed against Russian military leadership — namely, defense minister Sergei Shoigu and chief of the general staff Valery Gerasimov.
Prigozhin later relented, reaching a deal with Putin brokered by Aleksandr Lukashenko, head of Belarus, to turn his column around. Criminal charges against Prigozhin and the Wagner troops will reportedly be dropped and there were suggestions, still unconfirmed, there may be changes to Russia’s military leadership.
According to the secretary of state, the aggression against Ukraine has become a strategic failure across the board.
“Russia is weaker economically, military; its standing around the world has plummeted; it’s managed to get Europeans off of Russian energy; it’s managed to unite and strengthen NATO with new members and a stronger alliance; it’s managed to alienate from Russia and unite together Ukraine in ways that it’s never been before,” said Blinken. “This is just an added chapter to a very bad book that’s Putin written for Russia.”
Blinken said it was striking that Prigozhin was directly questioning Putin’s authority and the premises upon which the invasion of Ukraine was launched.
“That in and of itself is something very powerful,” explained Blinken. “It adds cracks. Where those go, when they get there, it’s too soon to say.”
The secretary of state also reiterated that the U.S. and its allies are focused on supporting Ukraine through this and any other developments. Blinken said Biden brought together the national security council over the weekend as well as leaders from among our key allies and partners. The president also instructed Blinken and others to keep the focus on Ukraine’s efforts to take back the territory that’s been taken from them.
“To the extent that Russia is now distracted — that Putin has to worry about what’s going on inside of Russia as much as he has to worry about what he has to do not successfully inside Ukraine, I think that creates an additional advantage for the Ukrainians,” Blinken said.
The secretary of state said whenever there’s instability in a major country — and one with nuclear weapons — it’s a cause for concern. However, “we’ve seen no change in their posture and we’ve made no change in our posture,” he said.
The secretary declined to say that Putin cannot remain in power, as Biden did shortly after the invasion began last year. It’s up to the Russian people, Blinken said. However, the secretary emphasized that the invasion of Ukraine has hurt ordinary Russians as well.
“One of the many many tragedies of what Putin has done in Ukraine is what it’s done to the Russian people. You really have to ask ‘How has this in any way improved the lives of Russians?'” said Blinken. “Of course it hasn’t. It’s made it worse.”