American intelligence received information in advance about the possible organization of an armed rebellion in Russia by the founder of the private military company (PMC) Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, according to The Washington Post (WP) and The New York Times (NYT) newspapers, citing high-ranking US administration officials.
According to WP, information about Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plans appeared with US intelligence “in mid-June”, NYT claims that American intelligence services received accurate data on June 21.
“U.S. intelligence had enough signals about Prigozhin’s possible actions to be able to inform the leadership that something was going on,” one American official told WP.
The NYT, citing one of its senior interlocutors, reports that in the past two weeks there has been “high concern” about what could happen in Russia, as “any instability will affect the control of the Russian nuclear arsenal.”
According to the NYT, unlike the events of late 2021, when US intelligence declassified information about Russia’s preparation for a military operation in Ukraine, now the US intelligence services have consciously decided not to do this.
American officials said they assumed that such information could give Vladimir Putin a reason to accuse the West of organizing a coup d’état.
In addition, the American authorities were not interested in helping the Russian president avoid a “serious” blow from the Wagner PMC.
According to CNN, citing its own sources, intelligence reported to the US Congress at the beginning of the week about the movements of Wagner PMCs and provided congressmen with detailed information about the build-up of forces of a private military company on the border.
Evgeny Prigozhin on the evening of June 23 began the “march of justice” to Moscow.
The Russian authorities recognized this as an armed rebellion, and a criminal case was initiated against Yevgeny Prigozhin under the relevant article. By the night of June 24, the situation was settled.
The fighters of the company liberated the objects under their control in Rostov-on-Don and went to field camps. Yevgeny Prigozhin must go to Belarus.
The Russian authorities pledged to stop the criminal case against Yevgeny Prigozhin and not to prosecute the participants in the rebellion.
