WASHINGTON DC (WSAU) – According to a report from The Washington Post, American intelligence agencies were informed last week that the Wagner Group in Russia was intending to attack Moscow.
Senior officials in the Biden administration, Pentagon, Department of State, and Congress were briefed about the plans for impending military action against defense leaders in Moscow during the past two weeks, according to the Post, though it is unclear when the agencies first learned of the plans.
“There were enough signals to be able to tell the leadership … that something was up,” one American official told the Post. “So I think they were ready for it.”
According to the source, given that Russia is a nuclear-armed nation, the administration and U.S. officials expressed “high concern” about what an uprising, instability, and probable change of leadership in that nation would imply for international stability.
“Tensions between the Wagner Group and the Russian Ministry of Defense are no secret,” a senior Biden official told the Post. “We have all seen Mr. Prigozhin publicly criticize, warn, and even threaten the Russian military on any number of occasions.”
The Wagner Group got within 120 miles of Moscow when President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus completed a deal that dropped all criminal charges against Prigozhin, put an end to the march, and defected Prigozhin to Belarus.
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