Ukraine live briefing: Wagner’s mutiny is a sign of war’s ‘corrosive’ effect on Russia, CIA chief says
Russia’s “mistakes” in Ukraine have laid bare its military weaknesses and damaged its economy for years to come, CIA Director William J. Burns said Saturday.
Speaking in a lecture at Britain’s Ditchley Foundation, Burns reiterated the Biden administration’s insistence that the United States “had and will have no part” in last week’s rebellion by Yevgeniy Prigozhin and his Wagner Group. The impact of Prigozhin’s “scathing indictment of the Kremlin’s mendacious rationale” for the Ukraine invasion and the conduct of Russia’s military leadership in the war “will play out for some time, a vivid reminder of the corrosive effect of [President Vladimir] Putin’s war on his own society and his own regime.”
Here’s the latest on the war and its impact across the globe.
After mutiny, Kremlin looks to unwind holdings tied to Wagner mercenary boss: With Moscow still rattled by the Wagner mercenary group’s failed rebellion, the Kremlin has begun dismantling and taking control of Prigozhin’s sprawling empire, which included not only the army-for-hire but also a propaganda media wing and internet troll factories infamous for interfering in U.S. elections.
But handling his operations poses a challenge for the Russian government, Mary Ilyushina, Rachel Chason, Robyn Dixon and John Hudson report. The Russian military, for instance, relies on Prigozhin’s businesses to feed soldiers fighting in Ukraine and cannot afford disruptions.
“Prigozhin is not only the Wagner Group. He represents a structure that is trying to work on the ideological front, on the political front,” said Denis Korotkov, a Russian investigative journalist who first uncovered the Wagner Group. “All this works in a tight ecosystem with other sides of his business.”
