Former Obama administration U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said Monday on MSNBC’s “Katy Tur Reports” that Russian President Vladimir Putin feared Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Wagner mercenaries.
Reacting to Putin’s five-minute speech in Russian, McFaul said, “I think it’s very clear what he’s trying to do. Everybody thought it was going to be something dramatic because Peskov thought it was — He is trying to divide the Wagner mercenaries, the soldiers, from their leadership. He’s actually trying to do exactly what Prigozhin was trying to do with the Russian conventional forces, saying, ‘You’ve been lied to by them. They’ve dragged you into this war.'”
He continued, “That’s my interpretation of the speech. What I think is behind it, is that they must have signaled that they’re not lying down their forces, just as you were just reporting, right? Prigozhin said only a couple percent did that, and so I think Putin is afraid of them, and he’s trying to put some division saying they were deceived to try to do this mutiny, ‘join us, and let’s throw your commanders under the bus.'”
McFaul added, “He’s trying to say they were the traitors to put a division between the council of Wagner leaders and the soldiers. I’m not sure it’s going to be successful, but it seems to me that was the principle message of Putin’s address tonight.”
He continued, “There is no other reason to give that speech because he was fearful of them. If everything was going swimmingly and they’re all signing up for contracts with the armed forces and laying down their guns and just go along, he wouldn’t have to give this speech.”
McFaul concluded, “He can’t just arrest them all and say they are all traders because to many Russians, including Russian soldiers, think they are heroes, because they fought so valiantly in Bakhmut. And so he’s trying to do this very delicate dance of saying, ‘You guys are OK, it’s your leaders that are at fault.’ And now we’ll have to wait and see how those soldiers respond.”
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