The United States “is not involved in the situation of Wagner PMCs in the Russian Federation.” Of this, the head of the US Central Intelligence Agency, William Burns, assured the director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergei Naryshkin, whom he contacted by phone this week, The Wall Sreet Journal writes, citing officials familiar with the matter.
According to media reports, the director of the CIA called Naryshkin after the events of June 23–24 to confirm that “the US was not involved.” Burns called the events “an internal Russian affair,” the paper said.
The publication also writes that Burns’ call is part of the US strategy, which, as stated, does not seek to escalate tension in Russia.
The White House did not comment on this information.
Recall that on Saturday, June 24, the headquarters of the Southern Military District in Rostov-on-Don was captured by the Wagner PMC. This happened against the backdrop of statements by Yevgeny Prigozhin about allegedly inflicted by the Russian military missile and bomb attacks on PMC camps. These allegations were refuted by both the Ministry of Defense and the FSB. As a result, a criminal case was opened against Prigozhin for organizing an armed rebellion. Russian President Vladimir Putin himself called the actions of the “Wagnerites” a criminal adventure.
Later it became known that President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko held talks with Prigozhin and he accepted his proposal to stop the Wagner movement in Russia and take further steps to de-escalate. After that, Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov spoke, saying that Prigozhin would leave for Belarus, and the criminal case would be dropped.
Lukashenka confirmed the day before that Prigozhin was in Belarus.
Source: Rosbalt
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