U.S. intelligence agencies knew as far back as “mid-June” that Yevgeniy Prigozhin was planning to use his Wagner Private Military Company to attempt a “coup” in Russia, adding credence to widespread beliefs that US and NATO deep staters helped orchestrate the entire event, which lasted just around 24 hours and has led to Prigozhin going into exile in Belarus.
A report from The Washington Post, which was released on Saturday just hours after the attempted coup came to an end, claimed that “U.S. spies learned in mid-June Prigozhin was planning armed action in Russia”, confirming that U.S. intel agencies had prior knowledge of the apparent coup plans.
“Over the past two weeks there was ‘high concern’ about what might transpire – whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would remain in power and what any instability might mean for control of Russia’s nuclear arsenal,” The Post’s report reads, citing unnamed government “officials” throughout.
“The instability that might result from a Russian ‘civil war” was the key fear,” the report went on, adding that the Ukrainians also had their eye on a possible Wagner coup.
In addition to its contents, the publishing date of the article has raised serious alarms that not just the intelligence community, but corporate media outlets, had foreknowledge of Prigozhin and Wagner’s plans.
While the report did not accuse the US of aiding in the attempted coup, it has been widely speculated that American and other NATO aid was given to the purported Wagner rebels. This theory has been emboldened by revelations of a $6 billion dollar Pentagon “accounting error” in the run-up to the coup attempt and by statements made by neo-con Senator Lindsey Graham, among others, who was openly calling for invoking NATO Article IV and kicking off a world war with Russia via Twitter, should any nuclear incident take place.
As the apparent coup attempt played out, multiple media outlets, including Newsmax, seemingly sought to help make Lindsey Graham’s dream a reality, as they fantasized about Wagner forces seizing Russian nukes, with many of the “scenarios” that the news anchors and their guests were going over sounding more like advice than speculation.
Though the “coup” attempt was squashed, several Russian military pilots reportedly perished at the hands of Wagner forces.
In an address to the Russian people made by Vladimir Putin, the Russian President indicated that foreign powers, perhaps like the United States, were behind the insurrection, comparing the unrest to the 1917 Bolshevik revolt that came in the closing days of Russia’s involvement in World War 1 and was supported by foreign powers and international interest groups.
That revolt led to the collapse of Russia and the founding of the Soviet Union, thrusting Russia into nearly a century of communist darkness.
“Russians were killing Russians, brothers were killing brothers, while various political adventurers and foreign powers were capitalizing on it,” Putin said.
