President Joe Biden stated to CNN on Wednesday that Vladimir Putin’s short-lived rebellion over the weekend has “absolutely” damaged him.
It was his clearest assessment to date of how Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutiny against the Russian leader harmed his stature.
In order to avoid giving Putin a justification for alleging a Western conspiracy to overthrow him, Biden and his colleagues have been circumspect in their comments on the events. However, Biden elaborated on his opinions about Putin’s diminishing stature on Wednesday.
When asked if the Russian leader had suffered any weakness, Biden responded, “Absolutely.”
Later, while describing the depth of Putin’s vulnerability, Biden stated it was challenging to gauge.
Biden, speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House, said, “It’s hard to tell, but he’s clearly losing the war,” erroneously alluding to the conflict in Iraq rather than the conflict in Ukraine. “He is suffering defeat at home. He has somewhat gained a reputation as a pariah worldwide. Additionally, it’s not only NATO or the EU; it’s also Japan, he continued. When asked once more whether Putin is less strong than he was a week ago, Biden responded, “I know he is.” In his first public comments since the incident, Biden earlier this week attempted to separate the United States from the weekend uprising in Russia by adamantly asserting that the West had nothing to do with the uprising.
“However, the fact that American intelligence agencies were able to predict Prigozhin’s plans to confront the Russian military in advance is evidence of how closely the US had been watching tensions between Moscow and the Wagner chief.
Biden said it was too early to predict how the situation would develop going forward while speaking from the White House. In the East Room, he remarked, “It’s still too early to draw any firm conclusions about where this is going. The final result of this remains to be seen, but regardless of what happens, I will continue to make sure that our partners and allies are closely unified in how we are interpreting and reacting to the issue. Since the weekend events, Biden has spoken with the presidents of France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Italy. He also spoke with Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine.
Wednesday morning, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested that Prigozhin’s uprising would help Ukraine’s counteroffensive. In an appearance with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Blinken stated that Moscow’s internal problems “may help” to divert attention. The Wagner troops themselves being removed from the front lines could be beneficial, as they were successful. They essentially just toss individuals through a meat grinder that Putin made himself, but that has some impact, Blinken added.
