As analysts have emphasized, the reaction of the Biden Administration to the situation in Russia has consisted of interpreting a piece of advice from Napoleon Bonaparte: “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” A policy that fits the usual recipe of the president of the United States to focus on his allies and partners.
In the hours following the uprising by Yevgeny Prigozhin and his mercenaries in Rostov-on-Don, Biden reached out to leaders of other countries, and the White House and the US State Department held talks with the countries of the G-7, India and Australia.
But until that moment, the US Government kept silent about the threat looming over Russia, of which its intelligence services became aware in mid-June. US spies caught Prigozhin planning armed action against the Russian Defense Ministry establishment.
On Wednesday, they notified the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department and even Congress. The intelligence agencies of the United States knew that Prigozhin was planning something and worked to analyze the information obtained.
The release of this information on Saturday by various media shows that the United States was aware of the imminence of events, similar to how they warned with complete accuracy from the end of 2021 that Putin was preparing to order the invasion of Ukraine, a “special operation” that was executed in February 2022.
The spies had enough information to communicate to the highest levels of power in the United States that something was about to happen and that they needed to be prepared.
However, unlike the previous occasion, when information was declassified to try to contain the Kremlin, this time Washington chose not to publicize the mercenary chief’s plans.
The intelligence services made this decision because, in the event of anticipating details, Putin could have accused them of orchestrating a coup d’état. Inspired by, they had no interest in helping the Russian president avoid a rift in his supporters.
“This is a moving picture and we haven’t seen the last act yet”, declared Antony Blinken, Secretary of State, in an interview on Sunday. “What has happened is extraordinary. There are cracks in the facade of Putin’s leadership building because this is a clear challenge to his authority,” he added. To fall or not to fall, that is the question.
Blinken maintained that a more complete picture of the situation will be available in the coming days, but anticipated that this is “a real distraction” for Russia, which offers Kyiv an opportunity for its “counter-offensive”. on the ground
David Petraeus, a retired general and former director of the CIA, said yesterday that Prigozhin “lost his nerve” when he was near Moscow and ordered the end of the rebellion. “You have to be careful when you pass an open window in Belarus,” he said.
The former soldier remarked that Putin, the tough guy, fled Moscow out of fear. “The Russian Government has been shaken, and Putin personally shaken. This makes him more vulnerable than ever in his two decades in power. Who knows where this can go now”.
