Russian president Vladimir Putin is buying time before seeking revenge against Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin over his short-lived mutiny last month, CIA director William Burns, adding that the mercenary group's uprising showed the weaknesses that Moscow has. Vladimir Putin has a carefully crafted image and it's only a matter of time before the Russian president faces further retribution for his actions, William Burns said.
The charges against Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Wagner group were dropped under a deal brokered by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko after which they were to relocate to Belarus. Although, the Wagner group leader hasn't been officially sighted since the end of his uprising, however, a video emerged that appeared to be filmed in Belarus.
Yevgeny Prigozhin's mutiny "exposed weaknesses in the system that Putin has built, weaknesses that had already been laid bare by the disastrous and deeply destructive war launched in Ukraine," William Burns said.
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Wagner chief's criticism of the war will become more widespread among Russians as Kyiv makes advances in the war, he asserted.
“In the sense that if and when Ukrainians make further advances on the battlefield, I think what that's going to do is cause more and more Russians in the elite and outside the elite, to pay attention to Prigozhin's critique of the war. That's where Putin is trying to buy time as he considers what to do with Wagner and what to do with Prigozhin himself," he said.
{{/usCountry}}“In the sense that if and when Ukrainians make further advances on the battlefield, I think what that's going to do is cause more and more Russians in the elite and outside the elite, to pay attention to Prigozhin's critique of the war. That's where Putin is trying to buy time as he considers what to do with Wagner and what to do with Prigozhin himself," he said.
{{/usCountry}}Responding to whether the Wagner group chief is in danger as US president Joe Biden suggested, William Burns said, Vladimir Putin is "the ultimate apostle of payback."
“So I would be surprised if Prigozhin escapes further retribution for this. So in that sense, [Biden] is right, I wouldn't fire my food taster,” he said.