FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
US officials have warned since January that there was an internal power struggle between the private military group Wagner and the Russian government, and have been closely monitoring volatile developments since then.
As Russia's invasion of Ukraine stalled earlier this year, senior US officials said they saw signs of tensions between the Kremlin and Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.
They said they believed these tensions would increase over the coming months.
The officials said their assessment of the situation was based on intelligence, an indication of how seriously the White House and Pentagon took the potential for a power struggle to cause further instability in the ongoing conflict.
Prigozhin has also frequently aired his grievances in public, releasing a flurry of audio and video messages in recent months against Moscow's military leadership, particularly Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the head of the Russian armed forces, General Valery Gerasimov.
Russia's Internal Intelligence Service opened a criminal case against Prigozhin after he appeared to have crossed a red line with the Kremlin.
Prigozhin, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest allies, vowed to retaliate against the country's military leadership after accusing Russian forces of striking a Wagner military camp and killing a "large number" of his mercenaries.
Russia's Defense Ministry denied the claims, calling it an "informational provocation".
According to National Security Council spokesman Adam Hodge, as of Friday night, US President Joe Biden had been briefed on the situation and developments in Russia.
In January, a senior White House official said Wagner was becoming a "rival powerhouse for the Russian military and other Russian militaries." Officials suggested at the time that Prigozhin was working to advance his own interests in Ukraine rather than broader Russian objectives.
The Wagner group, which the West alleged had recruited prison inmates to fight in Ukraine, was making decisions based on "what they will generate for Prigozhin, in terms of positive publicity," said John Kirby, coordinator of the National Security Council. for strategic communications.
Since then, the White House and other US national security aides have become increasingly attuned to what one official said was an "ongoing battle" between Prigozhin and the Russian defense ministry.
CNN previously reported that Prigozhin confronted Putin directly last year over his belief that the war in Ukraine was being mismanaged by top generals in charge, according to US officials. At the time, US intelligence officials considered Prigozhin's meeting important enough to include in one of Biden's daily briefings, the sources said.
Lini një Përgjigje