U.S. intelligence agency pre-reported ‘Prugozine’ to Congress, Biden ‘we were not involved’
U.S. intelligence agencies continued to wiretap Prigozin, and reported to Congress 3-4 days before the insurrection, and President Biden said, “We were not involved.”
U.S. intelligence officials reported on the 24th that they had told CNN earlier this week (estimated around the 19th) that they had briefed congressional leaders known as the Gang of Eight on the Wagner Group's movements and equipment buildup near Russia.
The New York Times reported on the 26th that U.S. intelligence officials “said they fully expected that President Putin would eventually say that the uprising was the result of a foreign conspiracy.”
In its first commentary on the insurrection, the White House said on the 24th that the first step was to rally key allies by video call because President Biden "shouldn't give Putin an excuse to blame the West or blame NATO for this."
President Biden continued, "We were not involved," and "we have nothing to do with it. This was part of the struggle within the Russian system."
Prigogine was accused in the United States of playing a role in trying to influence the 2016 presidential election in favor of Republican Donald J. Trump and has shown significant connections to the US election support system and US private military corporations (PMCs).
New York Times intelligence reporter Julian E. Barnes said, "Since Prigogine took action on the 23rd, US officials have been locked in, saying little in public about his intentions or what they know about the events at the scene." Some officials said they fully expected Putin to eventually say that the uprising was the result of a foreign conspiracy.”
US intelligence officials believe Yevgeny Prigozhin has been planning a major challenge to Russia's military leadership for quite some time, but it's unclear what the ultimate goal will be, three people familiar with the matter told CNN.
CNN went on to say that US and Western intelligence officials saw signs that Prigozin was preparing for such a move, including a massive deployment of weapons and ammunition, a Western intelligence official and another intelligence-savvy person said.
“It all happened very quickly,” a well-informed source told CNN. “It was difficult to discern how serious Prigogine was about the Russian military threat and where he was going to take his troops.”
It is not known exactly when the US first became aware of this conspiracy, but US intelligence officials held a briefing on the 21st by administration and defense officials, and when further confirmation of the conspiracy came in on the 22nd, the intelligence officials were not authorized to speak publicly, so they remained anonymous. NYT reported that Congressional leaders were notified on condition that
According to officials familiar with the intelligence briefing, they notified parliamentary leaders, and by the night of the 23rd, Prigozhin dramatically escalated the feud by launching a march on Moscow that the Russian government described as a coup attempt, and on the 24th, Prigozhin called in fighters and went to Belarus. Agreed to run away.
Citing some intelligence reports released in Discord leaks about intelligence gathering on Prigozhin, the NYT said, "The United States has intercepted communications between senior Russian military leaders discussing how to deal with Prigozhin's continued demand for ammunition."
“In interviews prior to the current crisis, U.S. officials said it was not just Wagner's army that was facing a supply shortage, but the entire Russian military, and while these problems had plagued the Russian military for months, U.S. officials said earlier this week that Ukraine's It became clearer as the counterattack began.”
"There is no evidence that the United States played any part in the uprising, although US officials caught wind of the impending conflict days before it unfolded," said David E. Sanger, the White House security director for the NYT. This could accelerate in the coming weeks, officials said, adding that President Putin said he was looking to deploy tactical nuclear weapons as NATO convenes its annual summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, just 20 miles from the Belarusian border.
"After the occupation of Bakhmut, the Russian Ministry of Defense moved to reduce Wagner's powers and forced all volunteers to the army to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense," said Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior research fellow at the Carnegie Foundation. “This meant that Prigozhin would have to subordinate his troops to the Pentagon if he wanted to cut them off from recruiting and get the mercenaries back on the battlefield in Ukraine,” he told the NYT.