Yevgeny Prigozhin could yet seek revenge after leading his Wagnerian mercenaries in an armed rebellion against Russian military commanders, CIA Director William Burns said Thursday.
Almost a month has passed since the Prigozhin mutiny, which Burns described as “the most direct assault on the Russian state in Vladimir Putin’s 23 years in power”. Although the mercenary boss has so far seemingly escaped the dark fate reserved for those who dared to challenge Putin’s authority, Burns says Putin might just be biding his time before exacting revenge.
Wagner bosses promise new ‘beginning’ in Belarus: ‘Welcome to hell’
“I think in many ways it exposed some of the significant weaknesses in the system that Putin built,” Burns told the Aspen Security Forum of the Wagner mutiny. He added that he found it “remarkable” that despite the uprising, “Putin felt compelled to reach an agreement with his former caterer”, referring to Prigozhin, the warlord nicknamed “Putin’s boss”.
But even though a deal has been reached to end the crisis, the CIA chief said he thinks Putin may be just waiting to mount an attempt to separate Prigozhin from Wagner. Mercenary force, Burns said, has been invaluable to Putin throughout his invasion of Ukraine and remains useful to him in Syria and Libya.
Burns also commented on a quote from President Joe Biden in which he said, if he was Prigozhin, “I’d be careful what I eat,” joking that he could be poisoned by Putin. “What we see is a very complicated dance between Prigozhin and Putin,” Burns said. “I think Putin is someone who generally thinks revenge is best served cold, so he’s going to try to fix the situation as much as possible.”
“But again, in my experience, Putin is the ultimate apostle of recovery,” Burns continued. “So I would be surprised if Prigozhin escapes further retaliation for this, so in that sense the president is right. If I was Prigozhin, I wouldn’t fire my taster.
The CIA boss also commented on Prigozhin’s movements following the mutiny after a video emerged claiming to show him in Belarus. “He moved a bit,” Burns said. “He has been in Minsk lately. I’m not sure he plans to retire in the suburbs of Minsk. But he also spent time in Russia.
Burns confirmed suspicions that his intelligence agency “knew things beforehand” about the mutiny, but declined to go into detail about what information the CIA had obtained.
He further referred to the success of a widely circulated CIA recruiting video on Telegram that called on Russians disillusioned with the Kremlin to speak to US intelligence. “We had two and a half million views of this Telegram video in the first week of release,” Burns said. “The truth is that there is a lot of disaffection in Russia in the top flight, and outside it, in Russia at the moment. As an intelligence service, we don’t miss the opportunity to try to take advantage of it.”
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