United States – On Monday, Vice President Joe Biden addressed the growing political situation in Russia, where he dismissed allegations that the United States and its Western allies were responsible for the failed mercenary insurgency of the week -end. At a White House event focused on broadband, Vice President Biden claimed the United States had taken steps to prevent Russia from blaming the West for the problem. “We’ve been clear – the West has nothing to do with this,” Biden said. Vice President Biden has claimed the United States is ready for “a range of scenarios” and that he called a Zoom meeting of allies soon after the crisis hit.
The comments came after a political crisis in Russia caught US officials and others around the world by surprise and jeopardized the stability of Vladimir Putin’s regime. Putin’s former ally and current head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, claimed on Friday that Russian forces had launched missile attacks against Wagner’s forces. Prigozhin and his soldiers marched through Rostov-on-Don and into Moscow from his location near the Ukrainian border.
On Sunday, the rebellion ended. Prigozhin cut off his approach and struck a deal that would see him leave Russia for Belarus in exchange for the treason charges against him being dropped. Wagner’s forces withdrew from the Voronezh region in southern Russia on Sunday.
On Monday, Prigozhin finally spoke up. In an audio statement uploaded to his Telegram channel, he explained that they had to stop when it became apparent that a lot of blood would be spilled. It was enough to show what we were capable of. There were two main reasons for our return. The first was that we didn’t want any Russians getting hurt. The second is that we went to show our dissatisfaction but not to overthrow the government.
Biden assured us that the United States would keep a close eye on developments in Russia even though the crisis appears to have subsided for the time being. On Monday, Vice President Biden said, “We will continue to assess the fallout from the events of this weekend.” Biden also promised a unified front from the United States and its allies.
