Blinken on Russia crisis: ‘We haven’t seen the last act’

The current crisis in Russia began Friday after Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, once a close confidant of Putin, accused Russian forces of targeting Wagner troops in missile strikes. Prigozhin threatened to lead a “march of justice,” and his forces took control of Rostov-on-Don, a city near the Ukrainian border.

The mutiny ended before the weekend was over, after Prigozhin struck a deal that would require him to leave Russia for Belarus. On Sunday, Wagner troops began pulling out of Russia’s southern Voronezh region. It was unclear how much the withdrawal of Wagner forces would weaken Russia’s efforts in its war against Ukraine; the phrase “paper tiger” was being bandied about in relation to Russia’s situation there.

“The fact that this is at the least an added distraction for — for Putin, and for Russia, I think is to the advantage of Ukraine. … this just creates another problem for Putin,” Blinken said during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” The disruption Prigozhin mounted is “just the latest chapter in a book of failure that Putin has written for himself and for Russia,” he said.

At a minimum, American leaders described the very public dissent as a blow to Putin’s leadership.

“Sixteen months ago, Russian forces were on the doorstep of Kyiv in Ukraine, thinking they’d take the city in a matter of days, thinking they would erase Ukraine from the map as an independent country,” Blinken said. “Now, over this weekend, they’ve had to defend Moscow, Russia’s capital, against mercenaries of Putin’s own making.”

“Prigozhin himself, in this entire incident, has raised profound questions about the very premises for Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in the first place,” Blinken added.

The weekend chaos marked the most significant domestic turmoil Russia has seen since revanchist communist leaders briefly toppled Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991. That coup rapidly fell apart due to opposition by Boris Yeltsin and others; months later, Gorbachev dissolved the Soviet Union.

The Prigozhin rebellion is an indication of deeper fractures in Moscow, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said.

“It shows a demonstrable crack in the strength of Vladimir Putin at home. It was a visible rejection of his war policy by a guy who had been his ally who had clearly gone insubordinate on him,” Klobuchar said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum said it’s a sign that Putin is “losing his grip,” on Russia, and suggested it could be an opportunity for the U.S. to step up and help Ukrainian forces to make headways in pushing Russian forces out of their territory.

“We have an opportunity, along with our NATO partners, to in this situation to really get behind and support Ukraine,” Burgum, who is mounting a bid for the GOP presidential nomination, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Let’s give them the support they need and let’s get this war over now and instead of having it be protracted.”

Former Texas Rep. Will Hurd, another GOP presidential candidate, saw the weekend’s events as something that American leaders should learn from.

“What did Vladimir Putin do when he had someone barreling down the highway coming to Moscow? He didn’t escalate. He capitulated. We should learn from that,” said Hurd on ABC’s “This Week.” Hurd argued the administration should have worked with our allies “to take advantage of this opportunity.”

Gen. David Petraeus, former director of the CIA, also saw the weekend’s events as a reflection of weakness on Prigozhin’s part.

“Clearly, Prigozhin lost his nerve,” he told host Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union. “He was, as you noted earlier, within roughly two hours’ drive of the outskirts of Moscow, where they were starting to prepare defensive positions. This rebellion, although it had some applause along the way, didn’t appear to be generating the kind of support that he had hoped it would.”

Petraeus said that Prigozhin, like Putin, now needs to be extra cautious.

“He should be very careful around open windows in his new surroundings in Belarus, where he’s going,” he said.