WASHINGTON — President Biden insisted Monday that the US had “nothing” to do with a stunning mercenary mutiny that seized a major Russian city and advanced on Moscow before disintegrating.
Biden said the “ultimate outcome” of the rebellion remains unclear — despite Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin agreeing to go into exile in Belarus after roughly one day of fighting.
“I directed my national security team to monitor closely and report to me hour by hour. I instructed them to prepare for a range of scenarios,” Biden said at the White House.
“I also convened our key allies on a Zoom call to make sure we’re all on the same page… They agreed with me that we had to make sure we gave Putin no excuse — let me emphasize, we gave Putin no excuse — to blame this on the West or to blame this on NATO.”
“We made clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it. This was part of a struggle within the Russian system,” Biden said.
The revolt, following a power struggle between Prigozhin and Russian defense ministry officials, may boost Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s NATO-armed resistance to Russia’s 16-month-old invasion of his country.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in power for more than 23 years, called the Wagner uprising “treason” before quickly agreeing to a purported amnesty Prigozhin and Wagnerites who did not participate in the attempted coup.
Biden, 80, traveled to Camp David in Maryland with his scandal-plagued son Hunter on Saturday after the conversations with his counterparts from France, Germany and the UK.
Biden revealed Monday that “I also talked at length with President Zelensky of Ukraine,” a call the White House had disclosed a day earlier.
“I’ll be keeping in contact with [Zelensky] — may be speaking with him later today or early tomorrow morning, to make sure we continue to remain on the same page,” Biden said. “He and I agreed to follow up and stay in constant contact.”
Biden added, “We’re going to keep assessing the fallout of this weekend’s events and the implications for Russia and Ukraine, but it’s still too early to reach a definitive conclusion about where this is going.”
“The ultimate outcome of all of this remains to be seen,” the president went on. “But no matter what comes next, I will keep making sure that our allies and our partners are closely aligned in how we are reading and responding to the situation. It’s important we stay completely coordinated.”
Biden is scheduled to attend an annual NATO conference in Lithuania, which borders Russia, on July 11 and 12 before visiting Finland to celebrate that nation’s recent admission to the western military alliance.