{"id":14657,"date":"2023-06-28T04:49:49","date_gmt":"2023-06-28T09:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=14657"},"modified":"2023-06-28T04:49:52","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T09:49:52","slug":"us-cautious-on-russian-rebellion-to-avoid-creating-an-opening-for-putin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=14657","title":{"rendered":"US cautious on Russian rebellion to avoid creating an opening for Putin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On the surface, the turmoil in Russia would seem like something for the U.S. to celebrate: a powerful mercenary group engaging in a short-lived clash with Russia\u2019s military at the very moment that Ukraine<\/a> is trying to gain momentum in a critical counteroffensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the public response by Washington has been decidedly cautious. Officials say the U.S. had no role in the conflict, insist this was an internal matter for Russia and decline to comment on whether it could affect the war in Ukraine. The reason: to avoid creating an opening for Russian President Vladimir Putin<\/a> to seize on the rhetoric of American officials and rally Russians by blaming his Western adversaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even President Joe Biden<\/a>, known for straying from talking points, has stayed on script.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden told reporters Monday that the United States and NATO weren\u2019t involved. Biden said he held a video call with allies over the weekend and they are all in sync in working to ensure that they give Putin \u201cno excuse to blame this on the West\u201d or NATO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe made clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it,\u201d Biden said. \u201cThis was part of a struggle within the Russian system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden and administration officials declined to give an immediate assessment of what the 22-hour uprising by the Wagner Group might mean for Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine, for mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin<\/a> or for Russia itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to keep assessing the fallout of this weekend\u2019s events and the implications from Russia and Ukraine,\u201d Biden said. \u201cBut it\u2019s still too early to reach a definitive conclusion about where this is going.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Putin, in his first public comments since the rebellion, said \u201cRussia\u2019s enemies\u201d had hoped the mutiny would succeed in dividing and weakening Russia, \u201cbut they miscalculated.\u201d He identified the enemies as \u201cthe neo-Nazis in Kyiv, their Western patrons and other national traitors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia was investigating whether Western intelligence services were involved in Prigozhin\u2019s rebellion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the course of a tumultuous weekend in Russia, U.S. diplomats were in contact with their counterparts in Moscow to underscore that the American government regarded the matter as a domestic affair for Russia, with the U.S. only a bystander, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden and administration officials declined to give an immediate assessment of what the 22-hour uprising by the Wagner Group might mean for Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine, for mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin<\/a> or for Russia itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to keep assessing the fallout of this weekend\u2019s events and the implications from Russia and Ukraine,\u201d Biden said. \u201cBut it\u2019s still too early to reach a definitive conclusion about where this is going.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Putin, in his first public comments since the rebellion, said \u201cRussia\u2019s enemies\u201d had hoped the mutiny would succeed in dividing and weakening Russia, \u201cbut they miscalculated.\u201d He identified the enemies as \u201cthe neo-Nazis in Kyiv, their Western patrons and other national traitors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia was investigating whether Western intelligence services were involved in Prigozhin\u2019s rebellion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the course of a tumultuous weekend in Russia, U.S. diplomats were in contact with their counterparts in Moscow to underscore that the American government regarded the matter as a domestic affair for Russia, with the U.S. only a bystander, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

independent.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the surface, the turmoil in Russia would seem like something for the U.S. to celebrate: a powerful mercenary group engaging in a short-lived clash with Russia\u2019s military at the very moment that Ukraine is trying to gain momentum in a critical counteroffensive. But the public response by Washington has been decidedly cautious. Officials say the U.S. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":14658,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[9226,9228,4451,9227,1770,1416],"class_list":["post-14657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-cautiousness","tag-participation","tag-putin","tag-rebellion","tag-russia","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14657"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14659,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14657\/revisions\/14659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}