A short-lived armed mutiny in Russia was a well thought out
and planned operation aiming to take over power in the country, says Russian
deputy head of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev.
When a
country backed by the US-led NATO, with upwards of US$100 billion in
sophisticated weapon shipments cannot counter Russian forces, it is quite
impossible to imagine a single unit succeeding in a coup attempt.
Life has returned to normal in Russia to the disappointment
of NATO and its allies.
Western media had always referred to Wagner PMC, whose
members have been fighting in Ukraine as part of Russia's special military
operation as mercenaries.
During the quick mutiny attempt, they were no longer
referred to as mercenaries anymore in the Western news narrative, as Yevgeny
Prigozhin and some of his forces had switched from battling NATO-backed
Ukrainian forces to fighting against the Russian Federation.
The US news outlets have cited sources as saying US
intelligence agencies had known in advance that Prigozhin was planning a major
move against the Russian government.
The US is said to have deliberately avoided informing
Russian authorities about the plan in an attempt to see how far Wagner PMC can
go to inflict internal strife in Russia.
Throughout the day of unrest in Russia, not a single drop of
blood was shed.
Many observers are of the belief that Prigozhin had been in
touch with foreign intelligence agencies that have been trying to carry out the
same mission as Prigozhin, but through other measures, in what Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov has called all-out hybrid warfare against his
country.
Western leaders have also been left frustrated as during the
attempted coup, Russian military leaders, politicians, senior officials and the
public came out in support of Putin and rallied around him in a strong sign of
support for the Russian leader.
Senior Russian officials had warned the West against using
the mutiny attempt to advance their Russophobic goals, saying this would
prove futile.
Prigozhin,
head of the Russian private military company Wagner group, and his aides began
the insurrection early on Saturday and ended by night. It was ended in a deal
brokered by Belarus.
The
Wagner leader's adventure came to a swift halt following an agreement with the
Kremlin, and Prigozhin called off his mutiny plans in return for security
guarantees.
As part of the agreement, it has been reported that
Prigozhin has left Russia for Belarus while his Wagner fighters will be
absorbed into the Russian military.
The Russian Federal Security Service has also dropped a criminal case over
charges of a call for an armed rebellion.
Prigozhin
ended the mutiny with the knowledge that his Wagner unit was heavily outmatched
by the Russian military. His mission against Russia was similar to that of the
US-led NATO military alliance, which has so far sent about US$100 billion worth
of weapons to Ukraine to fight Russia.
The armed contractors, who take their military orders from
the commander of chief of the Russian armed forces, managed to seize several
army headquarters in the southern Russian border city of Rostov-on-Don, while
others forces tried to make their way to Moscow.
Sergey Surovikin, the deputy commander of the Russian joint
forces in Moscow's special military operation, called on Wagner PMC to comply
with President Putin’s order and to resolve all issues peacefully.
Wagner PMC has been leading the fight for the Ukrainian city
of Bakhmut, in what has been the longest and deadliest battle between Russian
and Ukrainian forces since the conflict erupted in February 2021.
Some analysts believe it showed the combat expertise that
the Wagner armed forces lacked by stretching out the battle for too long and
allowing Ukraine the time to carefully plan for its counter-offensive.
Prigozhin began the attempted mutiny by claiming that his
forces had been hit with an airstrike, accusing the Russian military leadership
of killing members of his unit in Ukraine with the air attack. He failed to
present any evidence to back up his allegation. Medvedev described the
accusation as nonsense.
The former Russian President pointed out that given the high
degree of the attempted mutiny's preparedness, the professional coordination of
action and the quality management of troop movements, it is possible to speak
of a thought-out military plan and the participation in the mutiny of the
individuals who earlier served in the elite units of the Russian Armed Forces
or, quite possibly, of foreign specialists as well.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told
journalists that an agreement was reached that PMC Wagner troops would return
to their camps and places of deployment. Some of them, if they wish to do so,
can later ink contracts with the Defense Ministry," Peskov said. "It
also applies to fighters, who decided against taking part in this armed mutiny”.
"They have even requested the assistance of the traffic
police as well as other help to return to their permanent places of
deployment," Peskov added in remarks published by TASS.
Over the past six months, Prigozhin had been building a feud
with Russia's Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and Russia's chief of the general
staff Valery Gerasimov.
Putin had called on the businessman behind Wagner to settle
any of his differences in a peaceful manner. Prigozhin chose the opposite, and
that has raised eyebrows about what his true intentions had been and who was
acting behind him.
A convoy of his forces crossed the border from the
battlefield in Ukraine to a Russian border city, at one point taking full
control of it, before the Russian military swiftly regained authority.
His units have no aircrafts so there was no chance of
success by his armed mutiny. The Russian military could have wiped out all his
forces when they crossed the border, with Moscow enjoying powerful air
superiority.
Since the conflict in Ukraine, officials in Kyiv have
repeatedly complained about a lack of advanced warplanes to match Russia's Air
Force.
